Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a simple format that can be used either to receive updated content or to send content from one’s website or blog. It’s simple to use, and various free resources are available on the Net. Simply put, RSS is just like newspapers receiving content from news agencies like AP, Reuters, UNI, etc. If you have an RSS feed on your webpage, you continue to get the latest content automatically, provided it is updated by the provider or source.

To use RSS feeds, you must use a feed reader or aggregator. One free and easy to use resource is RSS-to-JavaScript. The following steps need to be followed:

1. Select the RSS feed you want to place on your webpage. You can simply type “RSS [subject]” in any search box like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. In place of “[subject]“ enter the the topic you want. Let us say, you typed “rss news”. The search engine will display results for this keyword phrase. Select any result and look for the “red” button with the words “RSS” or “xml”. Click on any red button of your choice. A page in “xml” script will open up. Do not bother with the page — simply copy the page’s URL. That is the RSS feed. EF NOTE: Simply look for links to RSS and XML feeds; sometimes they’re red buttons as described here, or some other colored buttons, or even plain text links.
   
2. The RSS feed has to be “read.” Go to RSS-to-JavaScript or some other feed reader and paste the feed’s URL in the appropriate place. Set you font setting preferences, etc., or choose default settings. The feed reader will generate JavaScript code.
   
3. Copy and paste the JavaScript code where you want it to appear on your site (it’s your site, so the assumption is that you know how to do this).
   
4. View your site and verify the feed’s content and appearance, etc.

Some more tips:

You may want to consider setting the “Link Target” specification to ”_blank” so that when the visitor clicks on any RSS feed link, the destination appears in new window.

Before using any free feed reader, ensure that the feed isn’t just for a limited period, otherwise, the feed will eventually terminate (unless you pay for continued service).

One main disadvantage of JavaScript-based feed readers is that search engine spiders or crawlers won’t read the RSS content on your pages. So, it is essential you use this feature merely as an information supplement and service to your visitors. Do not tamper with the JavaScript code.

If you have a blog on Blogger, there is usually a sidebar you can use for RSS feeds. Here are the steps for incorporating RSS feeds there:

1. Go to: Posting > Create > Edit Html
2. Paste the JavaScript code into the main body.
3. Enter a suitable title in the “Title” box.
4. Add any content, if you wish.
5. Click on “Publish Post”.
6. View your blog and modify settings, if you like.

CAUTION: Please do not include RSS feeds (other than those provided by the webhost) on free Web hosting pages like GeoCities, etc., since it violates the terms of service.

Mohan Potukuchi is a chemical engineer who writes on a diverse range of subjects. He helps newbies by recommending free resources for website development. Check out his As It Strikes Me blog.

By Jerry West

This article covers the rising rate of fraud in the industries of selling expired and used domains.

I recently purchased some good and seemingly well-established domains (they had good PageRanks) from a broker. However, when I “got them home” so to speak, they were far from what I thought I had purchased. In my investigation into this, it was clear the domains I had purchased — and many of the domains being sold today from brokers (especially on eBay) — are littered with fraud.

Domain names are investments, and any investment should be researched. Never make the assumption that the domain broker has done this research for you. Chances are, he hasn’t.

Just as there is fraud in PPC, there is fraud in domain purchasing. Just because the Google Toolbar states a PageRank 5 doesn’t mean it is.

First, let’s discuss the process and how the con artist works. Most SEOs and knowledgeable webmasters know the value of a high PageRank site. And how it can take months, even a year to get a solid PageRank 5 site. So, many SEOs and webmasters turn to domains being sold to get a jumpstart on the process. Their thinking is, “If I spend a few thousand on this site, it will shave months off my work schedule.”

The thinking is sound, but unfortunately, the bad guys know you are thinking this and they take advantage of a “loophole” in the system that isn’t known to most SEOs.

The Google Toolbar

Google really didn’t know they were starting “addictive behavior” when they first introduced their toolbar back in 2002. Now, millions of webmasters all have “Green Bar Addiction” and they watch their PageRank values often as closely as investors do the stock market.

The Loophole

In order to protect their algorithm from their competition (Yahoo! and Microsoft) and “black hat” marketers, Google publicly shows “delayed” PageRank. Much like the free stock quoting tools online are 15 minute delayed, the Google Toolbar is delayed too. Only, it isn’t just a few minutes, but 3-5 months.

So, the PageRank you see displayed is actually the PageRank the page had some time in the past few weeks or months. I am sure you know where this is going now.

Google updates their toolbar about once every three months. So, the con artist usually does one of two things. The first is that they will hijack the PageRank on another domain. I won’t go into how this is done, so amateur thieves can’t replicate it. The second way they do this is that they will buy or beg for temporary links from other sites or networks, drive up the PageRank to a 5 or 6, and when the Toolbar updates, they cancel all the bought links, lowering the real PageRank to zero. You see, even though Google “delays” the showing of the PageRank by a couple of months, they use the current values in their ranking process.

So, even though the site can “verify” it is a PageRank 5, the actual value (what Google currently counts) is 0. You basically bought a “vapor domain.” Here is a systematic way to check to ensure what you are being sold is genuine. This is your “gotta make sure this Rolex is really a Rolex” cheat sheet:

1. The first thing to do is to just go to the site directly and see if the PageRank is the same as advertised. Sometimes the con artist gets lazy and doesn’t realize a toolbar update happened and their “PR5″ site is actually displaying “PR0.”

2. While you are there, look at the site. Is the domain online? Is the site still live or is there a “placeholder” page? If it is a placeholder, the domain is probably dead.

3. Next, you want to look at the site’s history. When was the domain registered? To whom? Where is it hosted? Is it on its own IP or is it sharing with hundreds or thousands of other domains? What was the site before?

A great place to start your research is DomainTools.com There you can find key information: when the domain was registered, where it is hosted, and if the domain has its own IP address or not. If it is sharing an IP address, you can access the Reverse IP Tool, and often you can uncover networks of sites. This does require at least a Silver Membership which currently runs $15 a month. It will also tell you if the domain is on any email black lists.

To find out what the site was before, you can use the Wayback Machine. The reason you want to do this is if the domain you want to acquire was a child porn site five years ago, you’ll know. You’ll want to pass for obvious reasons.

4. Is the site listed in the Google index? Just because it has PageRank doesn’t mean it is still listed, so check. The best way to do this is to check the Google Cache. Do a query in Google for cache:domain.com (home page check) or cache:domain.com/subpage.html (subpage check). Please note that if there are no results that come up, the Google couldn’t cache the site. If that is the case, use the site: command instead. I like using the “cache” command first as that allows me to see the most recently indexed page and what it looked like. If it is different than what is currently displayed, that could be a red flag.

5. Verify the PageRank is legit. In the domain buying space, PageRank is often faked — especially on eBay or other auctions. I have been a victim of this in the past.

So, how can you protect yourself? Easy. You can use the free PageRank Detection SEO tool over at SEO Logs. Just type in the domain and it will check. If it comes back and verifies that it is valid, are you safe? Not quite. One more check.

Use the Google PageRank Prediction tool at iWebTool. It will give you a prediction based on current link counts from MSN. You should also check Yahoo!’s Site Explorer. These are two great resources because they update their links on a weekly basis, whereas Google updates theirs about once a quarter.

That was a lot to digest, I know, but this is how I make sure that I never get taken when buying domains. Getting ripped off is never something that is pleasant — and domain fraud is a killer as your ability to recoup your loss is slim to none.

Now you have the knowledge that you need in order to verify what is being presented to you is real.

Jerry West is an SEO Analyst for Web Marketing Now, an SEO Testing and Research agency. He is the author of the SEO Revolution, a paid membership site for webmasters and SEOs to get access to his testing information from over 500 domains and he is faculty member of StomperNet, the leading eCommerce online instructional community.

eBay can be a fun and lucrative part or full time job. With the right tools and a lot of hard work you can be very successful selling products on eBay or other online auctions. I learned through mistakes. so I compiled a list of do’s and don’ts so that you’ll have an easier time getting set up and going with your eBay business.

Do research your item. Learn about the market and make sure it is hot before you buy a bunch of inventory. eBay has tools available for you to research products; you can find these in the seller section of their website. Remember that even though something sells well this month, it might not sell as well next month. Current research is the key; always keep your finger on the pulse of the online shopper.

Don’t rush your auction title. This is such an important step. People are going to find your auctions through its title. A title is not a sentence; it is a combination of words that describe your auction. Make sure you spend some time thinking about what you are selling. What title words would make you look at the auction? Use words that create curiosity and interest. Also make sure that all of your words are spelled correctly. When you misspell words describing your auction, no one sees it.

Do give an accurate, thorough description. When you are writing your description, take your time. Make sure you capture the attention of the bidder; your goal is not only to sell this item, but to create a repeat customer. Make sure you include these things:

• Provide content and care information
• Describe the item accurately
• Describe any and all flaws
• Note measurements and size
• Always list shipping and handling charges

Make sure that you are very clear in your description. Clearly state what you expect from the winning bidder and what they can expect from you. Stating these things upfront will save you trouble in the future.

Don’t underprice your item. Make sure that your starting price is enough that you will be happy to sell the item at that price. If you underprice your item, people might think that it is junk. If you overprice your item and people can find it for less, they will not bid. It is a fine line and practice makes perfect. Again with pricing, research will be your most valuable tool.

Follow the do’s and don’s when you are selling on eBay and you will enjoy greater success. Remember that it takes a lot of time and hard work to create any successful business; work at it daily and you can see great results!

Joy Fredrickson publishes the Work at Home Business Reviews site.

Google AdWords’ Quality Score has often been a mystery to many online marketers. But many AdWords experts agree that there are three main components to achieving a high Quality Score and lowering your minimum cost per click — your ad copy, your clickthrough rates (CTR) and your landing page copy.

Here are four easy steps you can take to boost your Quality Score and get lower minimum costs per click:

1. Include Your Keywords in Your Ad Copy

Having your keywords in your ad title and body copy is one of the keys to writing a relevant ad. Also, this simple act makes your keywords bolded and gives it more prominence among the listings, improving your CTR and lowering your costs per click. It’s a ‘vicious’ cycle!

2. Include Your Keywords in Your URL

Include your keywords in your URL. Again, this has been proven to increase CTR and that is one of the strongest determinants of a good Quality Score — the clickthrough rates.

3. Increase Your Clickthrough Rates by Split-Testing Your Ad Copy

Write two different ads and have them rotate evenly. You can do this under your Campaign options. Doing this will show you which ad is performing better and getting a better clickthrough rate. Always create new ads to test against your ‘control’ ad, or your current best performing ad.

4. Include Your Keywords on Your Landing Page

Landing page relevancy is another important factor of Quality Score. Having your keywords on your landing page indicates relevancy and it allows you to pay lower costs per click.

Fabian Tan is a well-known Internet Marketing expert and the author of the free popular 51-page report, “Murder Your Job: How to Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses in 30 Days or Less!”

RSS has been used for more than a decade, but has only recently become commonly used. It is used to provide headlines and summaries of information in a concise and standardized way in one place, without the inconvenience of visiting separate sites on the Internet.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (although versions before RSS 2.0 were often recognized under various names). RSS feeds are written in a computer language called XML. This technology is what makes big news websites possible: RSS files are used to create a data feed which will transmit headlines, links or virtually any other piece of information to a channel viewer application, which is sometimes called a news reader.

Simply, a real simple syndication feed is a method that allows Web content to be formed into a recognizable form for viewing through a feed reader. It allows the user to save time and effort by viewing recent content from many different websites, without having to visit the sites individually.

RSS feeds (or news feeds) are growing quickly in usage and popularity and have become an integral part of the Internet, but many users don’t understand what they are. They allow people to see when their favorite websites have added new content without actually having to go to that website.

You can use RSS feeds to keep up to date with the latest posts from your favorite blogs and websites. Feeds can easily be used to get the latest news, weather, or movies, and be able to read them all in one place. This technology also gives you the ability to have other websites have up to date, accurate online information from your site(s) in seconds. Headline and sports news, informative articles, website updates, or your favorite food recipes are just a few of the things that you can syndicate!

Many people set up the feeds to update on their My Yahoo!, or Google page. You can also use them to keep informed with any groups that you belong to.

For example, YahooGroups is a free online community and discussion group service. YahooGroups can be monitored using RSS feeds. In order to keep in touch with a particular newsgroup, simply add /feed/msgs.xml to the end of the YahooGroup URL. Add the new URL to your RSS reader and receive updates every time a new post is added to the newsgroup.

RSS feeds can be used for online marketing very effectively.

If you want to promote your website, using Real Simple Syndication can get your URL listed with all search engines very quickly. This is a good choice for new webpages that need to have increased traffic. Marketing with feeds can help your URL achieve excellent results and ranking well in searches for your webpage’s main keywords.

Internet marketers can use the technology for contacting their mailing lists of subscribers. Many emailed newsletters are deleted without being read. RSS feeds are a more effective way of communicating, and will avoid the challenge of an email not getting through the spam filters.

Webmasters can use RSS feeds to place different types of content on their site. Valuable content can be in the form of articles, stories, press releases, announcements, updated info, company details, products and marketing. Creating feeds on your site gives webpages an ever changing source of syndicated content, and they need very little maintenance once you have set them up.

There are several advantages to using RSS as a source of Web content for your site. Quality content keeps your site visitors coming back and continually adds value to your website. It helps to perpetuate you as an expert in your niche and makes people more confident in purchasing from your site. Content syndication greatly facilitates your site in obtaining higher rankings in the search engines.

Barbara White writes for Send RSS Feeds where you can learn more about RSS feeds, content syndication and RSS feed submissions.

Today one of the biggest challenges that you will face is to get targeted traffic to your website. This is what makes eBay so lucrative. It allows you to advertise in a marketplace where there are already a lot of highly targeted visitors that are ready to buy. Here are the steps you need to take to succeed with eBay.

1. Familiarize yourself with eBay and find hot markets.

This is a really important step that you need to do before you start selling. Read all the relevant documentation as it will explain to you how to get going.

Once you have done this you need to find hot markets with constant demand for the products you are selling. The best way that I’ve found to do this is to purchase a third party application that will allow you to analyze eBay statistics. This is a really important step to seeing what is popular and how you can add your own unique angle.

2. Develop a good feedback rating.

As the famous sales trainer Jeoffrey Gitomer once said, people only buy from other people that they like, know and trust. When you first start out you need to establish your reputation. I suggest that you first start out with smaller ticket items. Offer good customer service and over time people will leave you with good feedback. This will increase your sales as people prefer doing business with other people they can trust.

3. Sell high ticket items.

It is much easier to make five sales of a $1,000 each than to sell 100 items that cost $50. Once you have established a good feedback rating, I suggest that you sell high ticket items to boost your profits.

Start selling on eBay »

Mark Abrahams is a full-time Internet marketer who has helped others to earn a living online. Visit his site, Secret Affiliate Tips, to know more about the magical marketing techniques that heloped him quit his day job.

The attraction of owning affiliate ecommerce stores is pretty obvious to anyone looking to make money through affiliate programs. Firstly, you can have multiple categories, all creating an income. Then you actually have your own website whereby you can capture email addresses if you want and build your list. Then third, you have the benefit of search engine food for the spiders giving you organic search result traffic.

One mistake that many new affiliate store owners make is creating their affiliate stores themselves. They then usually end up spending large amounts of time trying to overcome technical problems they have no expertise in.

I did this myself many years ago. I built an affiliate superstore that sold everything under the sun from A to Z — what a mistake! Even when the site was finished, the earlier pages needed updating because the merchant had changed something, like the price or picture, or even discontinued the product entirely. This would created bad links scattered throughout the store. Needless to say, I gave up on that particular project.

Even if you outsource and pay a programmer to build your affiliate ecommerce website, you could be looking at a small fortune before you even get started.

The allure of having your own multi-product store, however, is very strong. Any affiliate marketer understands that the more products you are able to promote, the more commission checks will come flooding through your mailbox. If you’re currently just promoting one or two programs at a time, it might be worthwhile to explore a new option that will allow you to increase your profits more than you ever thought possible.

Internet commerce has created more opportunities for affiliate marketers than any other business program ever has — the opportunity to have an entire ecommerce online storefront, full of products you can make commissions off of, all within whatever niche you choose!

We, as affiliate marketers, are living in exciting times because now, having our own multiple ecommerce online stores is a lot simpler thanks to wonderful data feeds. These feeds can display products from many different merchant stores, giving your store unique content footprint for the search engines to follow.

Data feeds are very similar to the RSS feeds used by blogs. The way the merchant feeds work is they display constantly updating descriptions, pictures, and prices of their products. Affiliate marketers are then able to then integrate these feeds into their own ecommerce store and rake in the commissions!

Jerry Holiday publishes Intelligent Internet Marketing where you can learn how to have an ecommerce affiliate feed without having to update or worry about using up your precious time and money resources.

Quickly turn datafeeds into your own affiliate stores in only 3 easy steps — no HTML knowledge required! Click here now »

Two industries that are often misunderstood are affiliate marketing and traffic exchanges. Let’s take a look at how you should use both to make more money online.

We could probably summarize this article in one sentence: When you use traffic exchanges, go for the lead as opposed to going for the sale. What we mean by that is promoting your affiliate marketing website is not the best way to utilize traffic exchanges.

What you want to do is go for the lead, meaning capturing contact information by giving away something of value such as a free report or ebook. This contact information is normally sent to an autoresponder where you can then follow up over and over for future sales. You know that you have a minimum amount of time for your page to be displayed if you have ever clicked on a traffic exchange. This is another problem with promoting your affiliate website itself.

People just do not have enough time or the attention span to sit and read a sales letter. But they will have enough time to quickly read a short splash page that hits a few high points and at the end has a sign-up box where they can put their name and email address. To do this you will need to create a landing page that is attractive enough to encourage your reader to give you their contact information. This is also an excellent place to brand yourself by including a header.

You might even go so far as to put your picture in the header or on the landing page itself. As you develop campaigns in various traffic exchanges, you will be branding yourself as well as trying to build a list for future follow-up.

This is such a simple concept that it really is amazing that more people do not do it. We have all seen many different things promoted in traffic exchanges. Think about what captures your attention and maybe ones that you have actually clicked on or joined before.

Very few of us ever buy a product off of the traffic exchanges. But we do sign up for free reports and ebooks, which then get us on a list where we begin to receive email. It’s off of these emails that we may very well buy a product from an affiliate marketer. This is the secret few people seem to really understand.

The right way to use affiliate marketing and traffic exchanges is to go for the lead, and then follow-up for a sale at a later date.

William Hutchinson publishes Hutches Affiliate Marketing where you can find the top affiliate programs and where he will show you how to make money online and help you start your own Internet business or develop a few work-from-home ideas.

We are always looking for ways to increase traffic to our website for free. Did you know that some of the best, free, targeted search engine traffic can result just from your domain name alone? Domain names that are keyword rich or specific to your niche can result in higher rankings on the search engines. And higher rankings means more targeted traffic to your website, completely free.

How to Use This Method

Let’s say your niche is “working at home.” You’re going to want to find specific keywords that relate to your niche topic. To do this, go to the Google Keyword Tool and type in your niche. Try searching for several variations of your niche topic, such as “work at home online,” “find work at home,” etc. (you may also want to search for synonyms of your niche topic as well). Research the average search volume on these keywords, then write down the keywords that are specific to your niche and have the highest search volume. I would say to find around 20-25 keywords that have a high search volume and are related to your niche.

From here, swing over to GoDaddy and go to the “Register Domains in Bulk” option on their menu. Take your entire list of keywords and add “.com” onto the end of each keyword and place them in the area to check the domains for current registrations. Search to see if any domain names are available. If some are available, consider purchasing them. If none are available, try to tighten your search method or be more specific.

Once the domains have been purchased and you begin to lay content on them, you have a very good chance of landing a top ranking on Google and other search engines for those keywords. Why? The answer is simple: Your domain is a keyword. Each time this keyword is searched via a major search engine, such as Google, you have a high chance of being ranked first. This will bring in targeted traffic specific to your niche, all for the initial cost of the domain and some time to put up some content. So give this method a shot, because you really have nothing to lose.

Bryan Hufford is a former corporate slave turned online entrepreneur. He has successfully launched several businesses online, working directly from home. Find out how you can start working at home and join his newsletter about earning extra income online at his website.

Though the numbers may vary from study to study, consumers are acutely aware of credit card fraud and identity theft. They read the same stories that you do, and they know that some people can struggle for months to clear a bogus charge.

But here is the key — those concerns have not slowed their passion for using their credit cards when they shop online. They know there might be a risk, but the upside to online shopping with a credit card outweighs their concerns.

Now that’s good news for you online business people, but that should also give you additional motivation to make sure that your credit card online processing is as safe and secure as possible.

So how do you accomplish that since you’re not in the credit card processing business? Simple. You make sure the company you hire to provide your merchant services has an unblemished record for providing safe, secure transactions.

And to do that is going to require some effort on your part because none of the credit card processing companies out there that are going to admit that heir security protocols are suspect, so you can’t go by the claims you will find on their sites. You have to dig a little deeper.

If you’re lucky you have peers who also have online businesses that you can network with and get references from. Because they will be happy to recommend any company that has given them great service — and they will be more than happy to warn you away from any company that has been a problem.

However, what do you do if you don’t have a network you can tap into? Another great way to drill down on a company’s reputation is to ask for references. This should not be confused with testimonials, because you’re going to need some specific feedback.

So ask for the names of people who you can contact and have a real conversation with. And when you get them on the line, ask very specific questions. How secure is your credit card provider? Have you ever had a problem? If so, how did they handle it? Did they back you up every step of the way?

And here is a great question that will spark a good conversation — if you knew then what you know now about your provider, would you sign with them again?

This may seem like a lot of work, but keep this in mind: If there is ever a security problem encountered by your customers, will they blame you or the credit card services vendor? The odds are you will take the heat because you are the face of your company.

So you owe it to your customers to make sure you have the most secure and safest credit card processing services. And you owe it to yourself as well, because aligning your business with a merchant account provider that offers superior service will help build your business.

Jim Osterman is an Internet content writer with Charge.com, a credit card processing company that provides superior merchant services.