Wdm2004 guide

linktrip

I'm asked often enough, both by clients and by friends, whether they should exchange a link with the total stranger that just e-mailed them, asking them to do so, and pointing out the benefits of doing so.

The short answer is no.

The long answer is this:

A few years ago, a link counted as a vote in the 'eyes' of a search engine. The formula for top rankings was easy back then: the more links you had (websites linking back to your website) the more 'votes' and (generally) the better you ranked the higher your website appeared in the search engine results).

Pretty soon website owners and anybody with anything more than a passing interest in Internet marketing saw the opportunity to outrank competing websites simply by getting links. And one of the ways to get links is to ask another website owner to place a link on their site pointing at your site.

In exchange for... a link on your site back to their site.

This is called reciprocal linking, and back in the day it worked really well.

This is why you shouldn't exchange links

The ONLY thing you need to remember when it comes to Internet marketing is this: play fair. Not because it's nice, but because search engines are not in this to make you money; they're in this to make themselves money. They have terms of service and a whole range of technology that helps them prevent website owners from manipulating the search engine results.

Getting links in order to increase your website's ranking (appear higher in the search engine results) is an attempt to manipulate the search engine results.

And this is a no no.

The whole idea of the Internet is that everybody has a voice, and people can freely point links at you if they like, support or admire what you have to say.

In other words, they have to place links on their website pointing at your website, to help them tell THEIR audience about YOU.

And they have to do so because they want to, not because you bribed them.

And exchanging links... is not the same as a free vote.

Exchanging links can harm your website's reputation

Today search engines are a lot cleverer than they once were, and they're certainly clever than the website owner who believes he or she can still trick them.

Search engines now place values in links. What those values are, nobody knows. Websites also place value on websites. What those values are is easier to guess in this instance.

In the Internet marketing industry, this value is called reputation, and sometimes it's referred to as 'trust'.

And it's important. In fact, it's KEY.

Your website's authority is affected by your website's reputation. If a website with poor reputation links to your website... then you're putting your website - and your business - on the line.

Get enough links from websites with poor reputations and your website will have poor reputation by proxy.

When somebody asks you to exchange a link with them, unless you know that their website is 'clean' and in good standing with the search engines, then there is every reason on Earth not to exchange that link.

Knowing or even guessing the status of the website in terms of reputation and authority takes knowledge, so unless you have access to a professional with the right knowledge, the prospect of finding out is not even worth considering.

Of course, it goes without say, that you should never ask the owner of the website if their website is 'clean' and in good standing with google and co.

Naturally they'll say yes (because they want a link from you).

So why are people asking you to exchange links?

The main reason a total stranger e-mails you asking you to exchange links is because they want to benefit from it. When it comes to Internet marketing, there is a ton of misinformation and out-of-date 'strategies' that lead to countless people using poor or plain bad practices.

Link building software usually has a bunch of template-ready e-mails that contain the whole message, structured like this:

Greeting ask for link exchange point out the benefits of exchanging links (usually a raft of benefits including better search engine rankings)

A lot of it is not accurate, and some of it is not true.

The bottom line is that most of these people are sending you a template e-mail to convince you to give them a link back.

How or why they found your website is a case of how visible your own website is.

If your website is popular and you actively market it, expect plenty of requests to exchange links. Take it as a compliment and move on, unless you know what you're doing.

Are all s bad?

The answer is no. Link exchanges can be very beneficial, when done correctly. However, the effort involved in checking that their website is 'clean' is seldom worth it.

Moreover, you have no control of their website and who or what they link to - or who links to THEM - now or in the future. A website you agree to exchange links with could have anything from porn websites, gambling websites and spammer websites linking to THEM, and passing some of that reputation to YOUR website.

On the whole, the Internet is full of website owners firing template e-mails to everybody asking for link exchanges with websites that have poor reputation

Keep one thing in mind: if the people asking you to exchange links had strong, authoritative websites, those websites would rank well naturally in the search engines.... and they wouldn't be contacting you (a total stranger) to ask for a link in the first place.

Therefore, assume that their websites are not altogether 'clean'. If they've asked you for a link, they've asked a thousand people (remember, they're using automated software that sends out a template e-mail to hundreds and thousands of addresses at the click of a button).

The verdict: exchange links or not

Unless you can verify the website wanting to link to you is reputable in every sense, don't do it.

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Koh Samui Island Property Investment

Koh Samui, Thailand's number one tropical Island destination with its own international airport creates an ideal platform for any would be property investor. Recognized for being an internationally known World class holiday destination not only brings an abundance of nationalities but also opportunities for lucrative property investment.

While the majority of interest has traditionally been from European countries such as the UK, Germany, Russia, the Netherlands, France and Scandinavian countries, a new market of investors is emerging from Asia and Middle Eastern countries including Singapore, Vietnam, Korea, China and the UAE. The recent surge of interest from Asian investors is due to an increase in the levels of disposable income, recent deregulation of foreign investment laws (Korea) as well as new direct air links to/from Koh Samui. Discounted flights within the region also offer tremendous value to tourists wishing to holiday on Koh Samui and its surrounding Islands.

Koh Samui's real estate profile includes many large branded hotels and exclusive luxury villa developments.

The market here is firmly based due to the fact that nearly all purchases of property are made without finance. Local mortgages are indeed not readily available, making property prices much more resilient to the World financial meltdown. What had been seen over recent months are certain properties being discounted, where the owner has a need to sell quickly due to financial losses sustained elsewhere in the World. This has created several buying opportunities, although these are generally quickly moved on to investors with cash.

So recent activity in the property market in Koh Samui has mainly been driven by cash investors, looking to move funds into property where good discounts have been offered. There is activity both on resale properties with price reductions of 10% to 30% to move property quickly to release cash and also certain developers looking to manage their working capital and clear property stock. Developer's in the early part of 2009 have been finishing off part complete properties, and selling them at a discount to realize cash. At this time there are still several opportunities to gain and purchase luxury property, before the local market shows complete signs of rebound and starting its predicted growth path.

After understanding these current local climate conditions, the Koh Samui market has undergone a change of emphasis with the arrival of a new breed of creative developers aware of the great potential from planned increases in numbers of luxury travelers and investors looking for Lifestyle investments.

Focusing on two innovative developers both anticipating this demand for Lifestyle investment properties, both focusing on the area surrounding Plai Laem and Cheong Mon. They reason that with the areas fantastic beaches, closeness to the airport and no signs of overcrowding this makes it an ideal location for a lifestyle investment. Indeed the area still exhibits a traditional Thai feel with small beach resorts combined with more luxurious properties, 5 star spa resorts and hotels.

Both have strong ideas about how to create lifestyle property, which act as both an exciting investment and life style vehicle for those seeking to experience Koh Samui tropical Island life in luxury packages.

The Mandalay Gardens apartment project is set not far from Cheong Mon on the hillside. It is only 800 metres from the beach, with many of the apartments having spectacular sea views. It is indeed a fully flexible vehicle and as a lifestyle investment gives its owners the best possible advantages, having the special feature of a branded hotel management by Astudo. The project was soft launched in May this year, with a show unit being ready for active investors already in pl ff9 ace at the hillside site. There are 9 different types of 1 bedroom units ranging from 50 Sqm to 90 Sqm. Prices start from 3.49m Thai Baht. Investment returns are not guaranteed, but with a 35% occupancy level are anticipated to reach 6 to 8 % at a 3,600 Baht a night average rate. Most owners are anticipated to participate in the rental program, and by doing so are granted up to 60 days per year free use. There is the possibility before construction commences of combining 2 or more units to create 2 or 3 bedroom apartments. Following on from its successful first project, Mandalay Villas, Tibor Szedlak CEO of Mandalay Samui Developments stated that the company has been founded on private financing, with no loans or other outstanding commitments. The legal status of this current project gives its owners a leasehold ownership of 30 + 30 + 30 years. Land ownership is secured by the fact that each unit owner equal shareholder in the land owning company. Payment's after the initial 35% deposit are based on monthly installments becoming due as work is completed. Sterling has been appointed as Project Managers with DFDL Crawshaws acting are legal advisors. The whole project is set on 5,600 Sqm of land and with construction commencing in September 2009 and completion of Phase 1 by the third quarter of 2010.

The Samui Emerald Condominium represents another attractive option as a lifestyle investment, with the construction already underway, now is the time to take advantage of the remaining units on offer. Completion of the whole facility is contractually scheduled for no later than December 2010. Situated along side Plai Laem beach it gives easy access to Cheong Mon and back along the coastline to the chic boutique resort, Fisherman's village. This area is home to the high end resort, Six Senses-Hideaway and Giorgio Armani's branded villa development is also close by. Among the other close by attractions are Big Buddha, Turtle Island and Koh Som. The Samui Emerald units give their owners access to classy facilities including a large swimming pool, restaurant, fitness suite and multi lingual reception. Units range from 1 to 3 bedrooms, including 4 Penthouse apartments with standard units from 44sqm to 109Sqm with prices starting from 3.05m Baht. Units come fully furnished with modern designs including all loose furniture and electrical items. Again, there is no guarantee on investment returns but expect 8% with average rental rates estimated at 2,700 Baht per day for a standard studio room with 30% occupancy. Samui Emerald will be run like a hotel. Guests will be met at the airport, transferred to the site, deposits will be taken, guests will be shown to their rooms to find welcome basket and shower amenities waiting.

Owners who enter the rental scheme can benefit from up to 167 days per year free usage, whilst obtaining income for the rest of the year. Given its legal status as a Condominium, also gives foreign investors the opportunity to obtain foreign title.

What's New Here? - Wow!TEMPLATE html templates.

HTML website templates will save you a huge amount of time and frustration provided, of course, that they are of the right quality.

HTML or Hypertext Mark-up Language, to give it it's full title, is the code used by the internet to generate web pages. That's something of an over simplification but is all any of us needs to know in order to make money online. It follows therefore that a website template needs to be HTML orientated.

Armed with your , and I'll explain later where to get a hold of more than 300, you now need the following to create and upload your site to an unsuspecting world.

A good quality, free, HTML editor website creation software to you and me. The only one I use is Kompozer. An equally good ftp ( file transfer protocol ) program to transfer your newly created website from your computer to your hosting company that will put it onto the web. Filezilla is a great tool and yes, it's also free. Apart from the speed element, using templates should make your site look instantly more professional. None of us, especially at the beginning of our online careers, wants to spend a lot of money getting someone to design and create our site. In addition while it is not a good idea to become obsessed with the technical aspects of making money online it is an advantage to have a good working knowledge of how to put together web pages.

It is a little like taking your car into the auto repair shop and being told that you have carburetor problems and not having any idea what the mechanic is talking about. A little knowledge regarding how a carburetor works could save you a lot of money.

HTML website templates are, therefore, a good half way house between doing everything yourself and handing the whole project over to someone else to do it all for you.

To summarize, therefore, you have the free tools that I have recommended and all that is left is to find a free first class, click by click, guide on how to use the software and put up your site in a day and, of course, the templates themselves.

html templates