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When was the Last Time You Referred a Website to a Friend?
By Matthew Glanfield
It's strange. Most webmasters work extremely hard to promote their websites on the Internet. You have probably worked day and night optimizing your pages for the search engines. You have probably spent countless amounts of money on Pay Per Click advertising and Internet marketing consulting.
Yet in the end there are hardly any results. For some reason nobody seems to care about your website.
Did you realize that most Internet marketers are probably working backwards? It's like watching a home constructor try to put up the walls before the foundation is even laid.
Ask yourself this one question: "When was the Last Time You Referred a Website to a Friend?"
That may seem like an odd question, but think about in anyway. Was it Google? Or perhaps HomeStarRunner.com? Or another website?
Now ask yourself why you referred those websites to your friends. Back in the day when Google was starting to become popular I didn't hear about it from a TV commercial or from a newspaper ad. I heard about it from my friends.
In fact, if you think about it, most good websites that you know of probably weren't found by searching for them. You probably had a friend or colleague tell you about the website.
So what makes these websites so shareable?
Article continued below...
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Dojo.behavior: Write Modularized HTML Document Event Handling
The dojo.behavior module provides a simple and lightweight mechanism for listening to HTML document events. Find out what makes dojo.behavior one of the best event handling mechanisms around.
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Learn how to use the Dojo Toolkit's versatile ContentPane widget to load dynamic content into your Web pages.
Post a Message on a Facebook Wall with JavaScript
Allowing your visitors to easily post links to your website on Facebook can really boost traffic.
Loading Dynamic HTML Content Using the Dijit ContentPane
Load dynamic content into your Web pages using the Dojo Toolkit's versatile ContentPane widget.
Handling Exceptions with ASP.NET
Exceptions can make Web applications useless from a user's perspective, but understanding how to prevent and handle exceptions can make the de-bugging process easier.
Optimize Your Web Page with CSS Sprites
CSS sprites mash up all the images used on a webpage into one large image and display only the part that contains the image wherever it's required. Using CSS sprites drastically reduces the load time of the page.
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These three tricks for manipulating the keys and values of WordPress Custom Fields produce some very interesting results.
Event Listening Made Easy with Dojo.connect
The Dojo libraries offer programmers a single coherent event system. With dojo.connect, you can execute any number of functions in response to DOM and widget events.
Using with the jQuery Globalization Plugin in ASP.NET
The jQuery Globalization Plugin provides globalization support to ASP.NET applications that can use JavaScript.
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The WordPress Custom Fields feature provides the flexibility to store and call custom image URLs, headers, and background wallpapers in your posts.
Squeezing the Most Out of the Ajax Control Toolkit's Accordion Tool
The Accordion Control is one of the many useful controls that comprise the Ajax Control Toolkit.
Why would you refer these websites to others?
It is simply because of content.
So ask yourself this question: "Is your shareable?" There are several components of a that makes it shareable. I will list a few here.
1. Entertaining Content.
If your has content that will make browsers laugh then you probably have a shareable website. I don't think anybody would mind coming across a that was cleverly funny in any way.
2. Useful Content.
Is your content useful? Or do you write articles just so that you will have more pages for the search engines and for the article directories? The truth is that most content on the Internet is not even created for people! How can anybody expect somebody to really want to stay at a that was created for a search engine spider?
3. Free Content.
A lot of webmasters are afraid to give any information away for free. They think that any knowledge should be packaged up into an e-book and sold. While there is nothing wrong with doing this, you must be willing to openly give out free content. Otherwise most people will not stick around in anticipation of your next e-book.
4. Well-Formatted Content.
While having a well-designed won't guarantee you success, by having a slick design that makes your content readable (or useable depending on your website) you will help keep even more visitors. Choosing a blue background with yellow text might not be the best idea if you have a lot of articles for your visitors to read.
In the end you need to take a look at your as if you were a visitor and not a search engine. If you were to find your today without any prior knowledge of it, would you stick around to read more? And better yet, would you refer it to a friend?
If the answer is no, then you have some work to do...
Matthew Glanfield is an Internet marketing veteran of 3 years. Receive his free email course on how to start your own Internet business by visiting www.internetbusinessformula.com/a.php.
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- The Dangers of HTML5: WebSockets and Stable Standards
New HTML5 technologies like WebSockets offer some amazing new opportunities for Web developers. But they also show how implementing unstable standards may cause more harm to a site than the benefits of the technology. What is the role of browsers and how should developers plan for when developing with HTML5? - Internet Explorer 6: What Have We Learned?
IE6 shipped more than 10 years ago, but its non-standard implementation of the shifting standards of 2001 still haunts today's developers. As the Web shifts to HTML5, and new versions of IE, Firefox and Chrome debut, have we learned the lessons of IE6? - Crank Up the Volume with HTML5 Music
With HTML5, music is making a comeback on the Web. Create amazing music site experiences where adding an audio file is as simple as inserting an image and users have more pause and play music outside a browser. The introduction of the <audio> tag eliminates the need for external music players, allowing for true integration of sound in your website. - Dojo.behavior: Write Modularized HTML Document Event Handling
The dojo.behavior module provides a simple and lightweight mechanism for listening to HTML document events. Find out what makes dojo.behavior one of the best event handling mechanisms around. - The Dojo Publish/Subscribe Event Mechanism
Learn how to use the Dojo Toolkit's versatile ContentPane widget to load dynamic content into your Web pages. - Post a Message on a Facebook Wall with JavaScript
Allowing your visitors to easily post links to your website on Facebook can really boost traffic. - Loading Dynamic HTML Content Using the Dijit ContentPane
Load dynamic content into your Web pages using the Dojo Toolkit's versatile ContentPane widget. - Handling Exceptions with ASP.NET
Exceptions can make Web applications useless from a user's perspective, but understanding how to prevent and handle exceptions can make the de-bugging process easier. - Optimize Your Web Page with CSS Sprites
CSS sprites mash up all the images used on a webpage into one large image and display only the part that contains the image wherever it's required. Using CSS sprites drastically reduces the load time of the page. - 3 Fun Conditional Tricks for Your WordPress Custom Fields
These three tricks for manipulating the keys and values of WordPress Custom Fields produce some very interesting results. - Event Listening Made Easy with Dojo.connect
The Dojo libraries offer programmers a single coherent event system. With dojo.connect, you can execute any number of functions in response to DOM and widget events. - Using with the jQuery Globalization Plugin in ASP.NET
The jQuery Globalization Plugin provides globalization support to ASP.NET applications that can use JavaScript. - Getting Started with WordPress Custom Fields
The WordPress Custom Fields feature provides the flexibility to store and call custom image URLs, headers, and background wallpapers in your posts. - Squeezing the Most Out of the Ajax Control Toolkit's Accordion Tool
The Accordion Control is one of the many useful controls that comprise the Ajax Control Toolkit.
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One or more files (pages) stored on a computer (a "server") that can be accessed via the Internet. Every website has a "home page", which is generally designed as the file visitors first see when coming to the site and which gives an idea of the site's contents. All files on a website usually contain textual or graphical "links" that can be clicked using an input device such as a mouse to move to other files, either within the site or on another one.
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- The Dangers of HTML5: WebSockets and Stable Standards
New HTML5 technologies like WebSockets offer some amazing new opportunities for Web developers. But they also show how implementing unstable standards may cause more harm to a site than the benefits of the technology. What is the role of browsers and how should developers plan for when developing with HTML5? - Internet Explorer 6: What Have We Learned?
IE6 shipped more than 10 years ago, but its non-standard implementation of the shifting standards of 2001 still haunts today's developers. As the Web shifts to HTML5, and new versions of IE, Firefox and Chrome debut, have we learned the lessons of IE6? - Crank Up the Volume with HTML5 Music
With HTML5, music is making a comeback on the Web. Create amazing music site experiences where adding an audio file is as simple as inserting an image and users have more pause and play music outside a browser. The introduction of the <audio> tag eliminates the need for external music players, allowing for true integration of sound in your website. - Dojo.behavior: Write Modularized HTML Document Event Handling
The dojo.behavior module provides a simple and lightweight mechanism for listening to HTML document events. Find out what makes dojo.behavior one of the best event handling mechanisms around. - The Dojo Publish/Subscribe Event Mechanism
Learn how to use the Dojo Toolkit's versatile ContentPane widget to load dynamic content into your Web pages. - Post a Message on a Facebook Wall with JavaScript
Allowing your visitors to easily post links to your website on Facebook can really boost traffic. - Loading Dynamic HTML Content Using the Dijit ContentPane
Load dynamic content into your Web pages using the Dojo Toolkit's versatile ContentPane widget. - Handling Exceptions with ASP.NET
Exceptions can make Web applications useless from a user's perspective, but understanding how to prevent and handle exceptions can make the de-bugging process easier. - Optimize Your Web Page with CSS Sprites
CSS sprites mash up all the images used on a webpage into one large image and display only the part that contains the image wherever it's required. Using CSS sprites drastically reduces the load time of the page. - 3 Fun Conditional Tricks for Your WordPress Custom Fields
These three tricks for manipulating the keys and values of WordPress Custom Fields produce some very interesting results. - Event Listening Made Easy with Dojo.connect
The Dojo libraries offer programmers a single coherent event system. With dojo.connect, you can execute any number of functions in response to DOM and widget events. - Using with the jQuery Globalization Plugin in ASP.NET
The jQuery Globalization Plugin provides globalization support to ASP.NET applications that can use JavaScript. - Getting Started with WordPress Custom Fields
The WordPress Custom Fields feature provides the flexibility to store and call custom image URLs, headers, and background wallpapers in your posts. - Squeezing the Most Out of the Ajax Control Toolkit's Accordion Tool
The Accordion Control is one of the many useful controls that comprise the Ajax Control Toolkit.
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