Casual Articles - Internet and Businesses Online

Federal Trade Commission; over regulation, who does it help?
Why is the Federal Trade Commission harassing the Franchising Industry? Their new rulemaking ploy to gain notoriety and status is obviously another agency attempt to spotlight themselves in the media to look like they are doing something. This helps the FTC with keeping their large budget going and the tactics of PR and puffery are well known to those industries that are regulated by the FTC. The latest franchise rulemaking going on now is just more over regulation and minutia piled on top of the bureaucracy. This is of course a disaster for the battle scared war veterans of the last two decades in franchising.The Federal Trade Commission ought set themselves up to handle the change in the political climate of the

ly include" system: a system where each php content page includes the top and bottom portions of the template (as in the previous approach), but only includes the elements below the body tag. This translates into a document that has its own html, head, title and meta tags, has an include_once() statement which is called at the top of the body element and includes the top portion of the template, has the content, and an include for the footer portion of the template. Such a system allows for individual editing of the title and meta-information during the creation of documents and solves the problems that both of the aforementioned systems face.

I find this system the most search-engine friendly, because it keeps the title information and the content together - allowing for the presence of relevant, unique titles for each page. This system is also the most human friendly, as storing the title information in the same file as the page content all

What is the True Nature of Internet Marketing?
12 months ago I took my confidence coaching business – Confidence Club – online, to help a broader distribution of people and to spread the message that ordinary people can achieve enhanced self confidence – and deserve to do so.So this has been a learning experience for me – an opportunity to find out just how effective Web marketing is, what works and what does not work. I’ve been a little shocked to see so many hucksters operating in this space, and saddened to realise that some of them may be successful.What follow are some of my observations. Feel free to disagree, or to challenge these. As time passes, they will inevitably lose currency anyway – that’s just the nature of the beast.1. The Web is

This article is intended for PHP web developers who create template systems for consistently presenting website content. PHP designers who create their own template systems should be concerned about how their choices affect the website's position in search engines. Below is a discussion of three types of systems, their impact on search ranking and a recommendation for the best approach.

Webpage as a CGI Argument

In this architecture one PHP script contains the entire template, and plugs in content from a file it reads in - getting the file name from a CGI parameter. These types of systems are not only prone to security problems (as users can modify the path argument to retrieve arbitrary files) but are also ineffective for search engine optimization. This particular design does not allow for titles and keyword/description meta-tags to be associated with individual pages. This is because the header portion of the template includes the section within it, and only allows for one site-wide title and set of meta-tags. Titles are one of the most important page elements, and having one title - unrelated to the actual content retrieved - results in a lower rank in search engines.

There are two other detrimental SEO effects this type of system has. The first is that each unique page is viewed as an aspect of the template script, rather than as a unique standalone page. This can result in search engines lowering the importance of individual content pages relative to the template script - which is often not the desired result. The other weakness of this approach is that having individual pages set up as CGI arguments makes site metrics harder to track, as statistics often show a visit to a specific page as a visit to the general template script. The popular web statistics packages AWstats and Webalizer are most affected by this.

However, this type of templating system is popular and sucessfully used in the world of e-commerce. In such systems, product information is stored in a database and is inserted into the template when a product is requested by its code. This means that both a unique title and a set of meta-tags can be stored alongside the product data (or generated on the fly), and inserted into the global template effectively. The only detrimental effects that remain are the latter mentioned two, and are usually an acceptable tradeoff for the increased ease of administration that a database-driven system provides.

Template as an Include

In this architecture, each page on the website has its own filename with a .php extension. The top and bottom portions of the template are stored in separate files that are included (using include_once() ) by each content file. This technique increases the importance of the page with search engines, as each page is its own standalone page rather than a CGI argument. This type of template system also makes it simple to track page views through regular website statistics software.

On the other hand, this type of template system still has the weakness of having one title and one set of meta-tags for the entire site. This is, again, because the header portion of templates has to include everything from the opening of the tag to the end of the code for the header portion of the template. And this area includes the title and meta-tags. One workaround for this type of system is to code the top template page to check which file it is being called from, and to substitute a suitable pre-coded title. Although effective, such a system is cumbersome to maintain as each new page that is published warrants a new title and meta-tag entry in this secondary system.

Body-Only Includes

The ideal PHP templating system will permit content producers to enjoy the reusability of templates, while maintaining unique titles and metadata for each page with ease. The system that meets all of these SEO needs is a "body-only include" system: a system where each php content page includes the top and bottom portions of the template (as in the previous approach), but only includes the elements below the body tag. This translates into a document that has its own html, head, title and meta tags, has an include_once() statement which is called at the top of the body element and includes the top portion of the template, has the content, and an include for the footer portion of the template. Such a system allows for individual editing of the title and meta-information during the creation of documents and solves the problems that both of the aforementioned systems face.

How Do You Make Sure Your Elevator Speech Hits the Mark?
The “elevator speech” has become the essential tool for savvy business owners, entrepreneurs, and other professionals who use networking and building relationships as key strategies in their marketing efforts. You have only one chance to make a good first impression. A great elevator speech is the key to starting the conversation.When someone asks you the introductory question “What do you do?” you have approximately 15-20 seconds – or the length of a non-stop elevator ride in a 40-story high rise building – to say something that will generate interest in the other person, so they ask you follow up questions about what you do.It sounds simple enough. You just have to create a short pithy statement that co

only allows for one site-wide title and set of meta-tags. Titles are one of the most important page elements, and having one title - unrelated to the actual content retrieved - results in a lower rank in search engines.

Template as an Include

Body-Only Includes

Why We Fear To Sell And How You Can Overcome It
So, you have set up your business, got all your stationery printed, got the premises and office sorted and now you have to get out there and …sell! Suddenly you break into a cold sweat but you persevere, pick up the phone or approach your first customer and it all goes horribly wrong! This really sets you up for the next one!The fear of selling is something which most first time business owners suffer from. Selling is not something we are taught in school or shown by our parents (unless you are immersed in business from an earlier age!) and so the whole process is alien to us. In this article we are going to look at exactly why we have this fear of selling and what you can do to overcome it.What Is Fear?<

. In such systems, product information is stored in a database and is inserted into the template when a product is requested by its code. This means that both a unique title and a set of meta-tags can be stored alongside the product data (or generated on the fly), and inserted into the global template effectively. The only detrimental effects that remain are the latter mentioned two, and are usually an acceptable tradeoff for the increased ease of administration that a database-driven system provides.

Template as an Include

Body-Only Includes

Creating a Winning Logo
Creating a logo to get you noticed.When you’re branding a company with a name, a colour scheme and a logo the logo is often not given enough care and attention. It should follow the chosen colour scheme and reflect the business that your company is in. Too often, particularly on the WWW logos are seen as a way to show off the design talents of the author. To create a free logo I have created this easy to follow step by step guide.PlanningYour logo should reflect the company it represents. Create a list of all the services or products the company supplies and try to find some common ground.Sit down and choose the colours you will be using. This is best achieved by studying the corporate colours

gular website statistics software.

Body-Only Includes

Search Engine Optimization - It's All About Quality Links!
Search Engine Optimization is a very difficult field to get down the path mostly because search engine optimization is constantly changing. There are many different factors to SEO but the general consensus amongst all of the professionals in this field is that SEO is affected most by off page optimization features.These include features like link building campaigns. If you are unable to get a lot of links pointing at your website then ultimately any efforts that you make to optimize are going to fail. The vast majority of your SEO campaign to properly SEO your website should be in creating a number of quality and relevant links pointing towards it.However, not just any links are good for SEO purpo

Conclusion

The types of template system that PHP developers choose to implement for clients' sites have a crucial impact on the future search-engine popularity of the client's webpages. Important factors to consider when developing a template solution are: relevant titles tied to content, relevant meta-tags, standalone files and ease of statistics tracking. The popular approaches of page-as-an-argument and template-as-an-include do not effectively provide these functions. Including template information after the body tag, and keeping headers intact is the best way to ensure that sites are optimized for search engines - and this is why you should consider using the Body-Only Includes model during your next project.

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As children we all hear the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” So we grow up, we pick a career and work at it for a while. But then what? Does the choice we made at age 20 bind us until age 65?

Untracked email delivery is just like riding in a boat with a crack, waters keep on coming in, and little would you know - you're sinking. Once uncertainty of email delivery arises, you will not be able to check the real progress of your online marketing which in turn will undermine your online business.

It's funny how quickly a website that was originally supposed to be a tiny web presence can quickly turn into web weed that starts growing out of control. Naturally, having a very large and well-known website is a very desirable thing for any webmaster seeking success.

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