The Selling Lounge Newsletter

SellingLounge.com


The Selling Lounge is a friendly forum where sellers help sellers to help our/your online E-Commerce Business grow by having a place of resources and support along with help in promoting ourselves and each other.

Monday, June 1, 2009

The Selling Lounge June Newsletter

SellingLounge.com
June 2009 Newsletter

Welcome Selling Lounge Members

We are proud to announce that we have had much interaction in the forum to better our online businesses together as a group. The Selling Lounge members are getting involved in many areas of the forum learning new things as well as getting caught up in helping each other out in many areas.

We together, if we all work together; can help each other out by participating in the Squidoo, Stumble Upon, Blogging, etc. Threads in the forum.

Diana has been wonderful in helping us out with Squidoo.
Check Out Our Squidoo Threads Here! SellingLounge.com

Lora has just recently so kindly offered to help us out with Stumble Upon.
Check Out The StumbleUpon Threads Here! SellingLounge.com

If you need help with your online business, come to the forum and get involved with the many threads we have to help you out. If you have a question, ask away and someone will be there for you. The Selling Lounge is a friendly forum where Sellers Help Sellers, so make yourself at home here.


Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

If you are new to SEO, I strongly recommend you to
Download the Full 22 Page PDF of Google’s SEO Starter Guide.


Search Engine Strategies

Write a Page Title. Write a descriptive title for each page of 5 to 8 words. Remove as many "filler" words from the title, such as "the," "and," etc. This page title will appear hyperlinked on the search engines when your page is found. Entice searchers to click on the title by making it a bit provocative. Place this at the top of the webpage between the HEAD tags. (It also shows on the blue bar at the top of your web browser.)

Plan to use some descriptive keywords along with your business name on your home page. Remember, this title is nearly your entire identity on the search engines. The more people see that interests them in the blue hyperlinked words on the search engine, the more likely they are to click on the link.

Write a Description and Keyword META Tag. The description should be a sentence or two describing the content of the webpage, using the main keywords and keyphrases on this page. If you include keywords that aren't used on the webpage, you could hurt yourself. Place the Description META Tag at the top of the webpage, between the tags, in this format: Some search engines include this description below your hyperlinked title.

Your maximum number of characters should be about 255; just be aware that only the first 60 or so are visible on Google, though more may be indexed.

Include Your Keywords in Header Tags.

Make Sure Your Keywords Are in the First Paragraph of Your Body Text. Search engines expect that your first paragraph will contain the important keywords for the document -- where most people write an introduction to the content of the page.

Use Keywords in Hyperlinks. Search engines are looking for clues to the focus of your page. When they see words hyperlinked in your body text, they consider these potentially important, so hyperlink your important keywords and keyphrases. To emphasize it even more, the webpage you are linking to could have a page name with the keyword or keyphrase, such as blue-widget.htm -- another clue for the search engine.

Make Your Navigation System Search Engine Friendly.

Develop Several Pages Focused on Particular Keywords. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists no longer recommend using external doorway or gateway pages, since nearly duplicate webpages might get you penalized. Rather, develop several webpages on your site, each of which is focused on a different keyword or keyphrase. For example, instead of listing all your services on a single webpage, try developing a separate webpage for each. These pages will rank higher for their keywords since they contain targeted rather than general content. You can't fully optimize all the webpages in your site, but these focused-content webpages you'll want to spend lots of time tweaking to improve their rank.

Submit Your Webpage URL to Search Engines.

Fine-tune with Search Engine Optimization.

Promote Your Local Business on the Internet. These days many people search for local businesses on the Internet. To make sure they find you include on every page of your website the street address, zip code, phone number.


Linking Strategies

Links to your site from other sites bring additional traffic. But since Google and other major search engines consider the number of incoming links to your website ("link popularity") as an important factor in ranking, more links will help you rank higher in the search engines, too. Google has introduced a 10-point scale called PageRank (10 is the highest rank) to indicate the quantity and quality of incoming links. All links, however, are not created equal. Links from popular information hubs will help your site rank higher than those from low traffic sites.

Submit Your Site to Key Directories, since a link from a directory will help your ranking -- and get you traffic. Be sure to list your site in the free Open Directory Project (http://www.dmoz.com), overseen by overworked volunteer human editors. This hierarchical directory provides content feeds to all the major search engines. Plus it provides a link to your site from an information hub that Google deems important. But don't be impatient and resubmit or you'll go to the end of the queue.

Yahoo! Directory is another important directory to be listed in. Real humans will read (and too often, pare down) your 200-character sentence, so be very careful and follow their instructions (http://docs.yahoo.com/info/suggest/). Hint: Use somewhat less than the maximum number of characters allowable, so you don't have wordy text that will tempt the Yahoo! editor to begin chopping.

The Selling Lounge Link Directory where you can add your links.
TSL 100% FREE SEO Link Directory! SellingLounge.com

Submit Your Site to Industry Sites and Specialized Directories.

Request Reciprocal Links. Find complementary websites and request a reciprocal link to your site (especially to your free service, if you offer one).

Write Articles for Others to Use in their Newsletters. You can dramatically increase your visibility when you write articles in your area of expertise and distribute them to editors as free content for their e-mail newsletters or their websites.

Begin a Business Blog. Want links to your site? Begin a business blog on your website, hosted on your own domain. If you offer excellent content and regular industry comment, people are likely to link to it, increasing your site's PageRank.

Install a "Signature" in your E-Mail Program to help potential customers get in touch with you.

Publish an E-Mail Newsletter. While it's a big commitment in time, publishing a monthly e-mail newsletter is one of the very best ways to keep in touch with your prospects, generate trust, develop brand awareness, and build future business. It also helps you collect e-mail addresses from those who visit your site but aren't yet ready to make a purchase. Ask for an e-mail address and first name so you can personalize the newsletter.


Best Site Contest Winner

The Selling Lounge

Stone Hill Collectibles Best Site Contest Winner - 1st Place!

Fun to explore and constantly changing assortment of vintage and hard to find items including Vintage and out-of-print Craft Patterns, delicious old Cookbooks, Vintage and antique Jewelry, Vintage Sewing Patterns, Antique Photos & Postcards, Old Buttons, Vintage Sewing Trims, Antique Sheet Music, Bits & Pieces of Ephemera... and who knows what else??



Best Site Contest Winner

The Selling Lounge

Mule Wagon! Best Site Contest Winner - 1st Place!

Just added: three striking neon beer signs. Add the lovely glow of neon to your home bar or game room. We just added a good old Kenmore sewing machine to the Vintage Sewing Department. Get quality that lasts! Speaking of quality, check out the Kitchen Cutlery for brand name kitchen knives. Dexter, Henckels, Boker, Chicago Cutlery, Case XX - outfit your kitchen with good used knives at bargain prices!



Sign Up To Be Added To The Best Site Contest

We have a Best Site Contest each month and would love if everyone could participate in this fun activity. This not only gets visitors to your sites, but also get visitors looking at what you have for sale and helps up your page ranking.

Sign Up Here For The Best Site Contest: SellingLounge.com
Vote Here For The Best Site Contest Going On Now! SellingLounge.com
Please Read Our New Best Site Contest Rules! SellingLounge.com


The Winner of the 10,000th Posts Contest is CruiseReady

CruiseReady Picked 05/14/09 and our 10,000th post was posted on May 16th by Keleka! CruiseReady picked the closest date that we would post our 10,000th post without going over.



Just by CruiseReady participating and becoming a winner her site is featured on the main page of The Selling Lounge.


Posting Contest

The Selling Lounge is having a Posting Contest !
This will run for TWO (2) full months!
May 1st - June 30th

The idea behind this fun contest is to get the members into the forum reading all of the important information that we have here for you to better your online business and to help others as well. To get you to welcome new members, to get involved with the Squidoo threads, StumbleUpon Threads, write about your site, ADD helpful information for others, and by getting involved to better your business.

Posting Contest Extra Bonus Points: SellingLounge.com Go to the forum here and post that you read The Selling Lounge Newsletter and you get 100 Extra Points.

Sign Up Here SellingLounge.com


How To Get Your Banner in TSL Scroll?

Now I bet you have asked yourself "How Can I Get My Banner in TSL Member Sites Scroll"!

That is really easy to do! Just be an active member of The Selling Lounge by posting and your 88x31 banner will be placed up there with the others. Once you become an active member please contact me with your Banner URL and your Site URL.

This is just another way that we help each other here on TSL!


Featured Site - ReallySmartDeals

Reallysmartdeals Will Show your site to 1,000's of Potential Shoppers




1st I would like to thank Bays (Debi) for featuring Reallysmartdeals. This is great. Bays is always helping others. Thank you Bays. I just can't say it enough.

ReallySmartDeals.com! Shopping Manual Traffic, Banner and Text Exchange. We have been online since December 21 2004. The thing I love the most about Reallysmartdeals is all the great people I have meant over the years. We are like family. I also help by prompting the members stores and sites all over the internet in the form of text ads and banner ads. I just started a group on Ning http://reallysmartdeals.ning.com/

Be sure to read our newsletter. This is where we feature the top ten surfers each week and much more. http://reallysmartdealsnewsletter.blogspot.com/

Reallysmartdeals has many tools to help you grow your business. Connect with excited customers who are ready to buy on Reallysmartdeals.com We Promote Real Sellers Selling Actual Products Online
Increase Your Sales and Business Presence -
ReallySmartDeals.com! will help your businesses STAND OUT and be NOTICED
ReallySmartDeals is a niche site for shoppers and sellers.



ReallySmartDeals.com is a way of thinking about surfing and shopping online. It takes the traffic exchange technology and applies it to shopping. However, the similarities stop there. At ReallySmartDeals.com, we list only legitimate clients with something to sell. For example, a hobbyist sits for hours making a unique product. Maybe, you collect coins and would like to sell a few. Or you are an artist or craftsman? Get the idea?

We provide a place to market the product while making it easy for shoppers.
The possibilities are virtually endless. We have provided this service because of the great need to make selling, shopping and buying an easy process. We know there are many people who have products to sell. We also know there are many people who are in the buying mood. Here it is made easy.

You do not have to wade through mounds of unrelated websites to find actual products. We have already screened out non- shopping and non-selling sites.

We provide a place to market your products for free. We only allow auctions, auction stores, auction sites, shopping websites, affiliate programs that are related to shopping in some way and recourses for shopping.

What will ReallySmartDeals.com do for my business? Promote your business with today's most effective online advertising technology Dramatically increase your search engine visibility with ReallySmartDeals - Connect with excited customers who are ready to buy.
There are many more benefits for members more exposure and more clicks and sales to your stores and auctions.

The additional revenue for you is increased sales. You are giving your potential buyer another benefit and another reason to buy from you.

Get noticed in all the major search engines Reach more prospective customers Drive high-quality traffic to your website Maximize your moneymaking opportunities Target people interested in your products and services Eliminate wasted advertising spend Save yourself years of research and costly mistakes Grow your business in less time Tap into your built-in audience Put your business in front of the right people at the right time Really Products for Real People Sell, Buy, Browse Look at your own speed All sites are screened for safe surfing

NOTE: Join our growing community and generate some traffic for your auctions & websites today! Click here to join!




http://reallysmartdeals.ning.com/


http://reallysmartdeals.ning.com/group/reallysmartdeals


Featured Site - Vendio

Vendio The Vendio Platform is a complete eCommerce solution that enables merchants to quickly sell products across multiple online sales channels including eBay, Amazon, Shopping.com, Shopzilla, Google, and their own online store. The Platform includes a robust, feature-rich online store, Google Base product distribution as well as item, order and customer management for FREE. Regardless of whether a merchant sells 10 or 10,000 items in their Vendio store – they pay no web hosting fees, image hosting fees, listing fees or success fees. If a merchant wants to reach more buyers in places where they shop, such as eBay, Amazon or comparison shopping engines then they can easily extend the Platform to marketplaces for $10 a month plus a percentage of total sales.

For merchants interested in extending the Vendio Platform to marketplaces, Vendio is currently offering a 60 Day Trial. Along with the trial comes a great bonus – Vendio is waiving its Amazon fees for the rest of 2009.

To learn more, visit www.vendio.com.


Keleka 's Kollections Jewelry & The Selling Lounge

I would like to start this post by saying this posting is long overdue. Above you will find a banner that will navigate you to one of my favorite places called the Selling Lounge. This is a friendly forum where Sellers help Sellers.

I am proud to say I am a moderator at the Selling Lounge and I truly love it. Here you will find such amazing people who are willing to help you succeed with your on line business with such sincerity it is actually mind blowing !

In this forum I have said more than once and with no doubt more than twice, without this lounge/forum Keleka's Kollections would not be up and running. I started this business due to a home based jewelry business where my clients would ask me "Why don't you have a website" so I then decided to put my jewelry on a website...Well it is not that simple, there is marketing, learning how to submit to major search engines, using the correct keywords, tagging, RSS feeds,blogging etc. the list is endless! This is where I feel a angel guided me towards the Selling Lounge and once I found it I stayed!

The Selling Lounge owner Debi has the patience of a saint and through countless emails has taught me new informative strategies to help my website grow in the direction I had planned. Also in the lounge you will find on-line sellers who go out of their way to help you if you have a problem and they do this effortless, I know now these are all people which whom I never met or spoke with I can now without question call my friends. Having been a moderator at the Selling Lounge for a long time , I can only tell you I am with some of the hardest working people in this industry. On-line business owners who never give up , they remain optimistic even when things sometimes aren't going as well as they should. Along with many categories in this lounge pertaining to business you will also find games, Learning New Organic Tips with Diana, Dancing with the Stars, Jokes from Vinewood, Who ate what for Dinner, What is in your backyard, A place for prayers for our members who may not feeling be well, Birthdays, American Idol, Shout outs with Keleka, Contests,you name it's there. In fact if you see something that is missing you can join and then start your own thread. You will also receive the friendliest Welcome on the Internet from such Warm sincere people who really care.

I am happy to say I now have a few successful on line businesses and a customer base which I am so proud of. I pride myself with customer care being the number one priority. As a owner of on-line businesses I can honestly say each sale still feels like the first sale. Words cannot explain the honor I feel when someone places a purchase on my site. The feeling is not describable! In Closing I will say I continue learning something new everyday here at the Selling Lounge and again I know for a fact I would not still be selling online if it was not for the Selling Lounge. Do yourself a favor and come join the this fantastic forum where you will learn how to navigate your websites to the direction in which you plan and have fun doing it at the same time!


Do You Want Your Site Featured In Our Newsletter?

If you are interested in having your site featured in our Newsletter please submit to me why you think your site should be featured in The Selling Lounge Newsletter along with a brief description of your site no more than about a paragraph in length.

I will go through all submitted sites and pick which one will be added to the upcoming Newsletter. I will save all submitted sites to be featured in upcoming Newsletters.

I will need the following for your site submittal:
1. The name of your site
2. The URL of your site
3. The Description of your site
4. A Banner for your site no wider than 500px
5. You must be an active member in the forum

Contact Me About Your Site!


Helpful Info:

The Selling Lounge appreciates all members adding helpful content to the forum to help others and I strongly encourage it.

Welcome Members
Please stop by the Member Center - Introduction Corner to welcome new members from time to time. This not only is a kind gesture, but a way to get to know other sellers and to get your links out there.

Your Signature
The Selling Lounge gives a great deal of space in your signature to place many links to your selling venues, so please add your links. This is a wonderful way to get your links searched by search engines.

Banners In Siggys IMPORTANT PLEASE READ!!!
Please check the size of your banners in your signature as we are going to limit the size in everyone's siggy area. I'm thinking the size limit for banners should be no larger than 140px (height) by 500px (wide). Members have to scroll too much because of the siggy area and I would love for all of us to take the time to fix the size of our banners. I will allow ample time for us to clean up this area. Thank You for your cooperation in this matter.

Special Thank You
I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who have made The Selling Lounge what it is and what it can be. TSL has so many members helping each other and taking part in the many areas of the forum where we have places just for you to help get you out there and noticed.

A HUGE SPECIAL THANK YOU goes out to our Moderators of The Selling Lounge!

Vintage Rose Collectibles whom is someone very special to me is always adding important content to TSL for all of us to better our business and I just can't thank her enough.

OrganicGiftsByDiana has really whipped us into shape when it comes to the importance of Squidoo and StumbleUpon along with many numerous ways to better our business.

Keleka and Vinewood are true assets to TSL as they are always on the ball making sure that our new members are being welcomed and getting the assistance that they need. Always there to jump in with suggestions to make our forum the friendly place that it is.

loraseverson has been so kind to take over "The StumbleUpon" Threads for us, so if you have any questions please make sure that you ask. We really want to get everyone to the forum to stumble on each others sites.


The Selling Lounge Directory

The Selling lounge Link Directory is a 100% SEO friendly Link Directory and Human Edited. Submit your web site free to our fast growing link directory.

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Thank You, The Selling Lounge