mel jacobson on thu 11 dec 03
selling on the net is the same as selling at home.
the word has to get out.
there are millions of websites out there...what
makes anyone think that folks are going to flock to yours?
you have to let people know, have to get your name and
address out there. not to mention a website that people
can follow.
it is not an accident that when you put `mel jacobson` in google
my name comes up first. it has taken a hell of a lot of work
to make that happen...good meta tags, getting a name out
there...writing, and of course clayart. it is never accidental.
it is hard work, and promotion.
in many cases, it takes years to get your website located and
used by folks. mine is not a great selling website...that is not
the intent. i sell stuff, mail it off. 4-5 good pots a month.
but, it is still out there. things are happening.
we worked hard to make the new rid-a-tick website rise
on the list. it is first in several categories. now, that one
will pay off, big time. we are keeping it simple, a story.
and, several clayarters have helped me, big time.
just don't jump into web commerce and think you will have orders
over night. it takes a good deal of time...and effort, just like
backyard sales. it takes years and patience to make it happen.
but, every year you wait, is another year you have to catch the
crowd. pushing ahead...clawing ahead.
if you are shy, and want to wait...well the line is long.
mel
From:
Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
web site: my.pclink.com/~melpots
or try: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
new/ http://www.rid-a-tick.com
Odin Maxwell on fri 12 dec 03
On Thu, 11 Dec 2003 21:23:23 -0600, mel jacobson wrote:
>it is not an accident that when you put `mel jacobson` in google
>my name comes up first. it has taken a hell of a lot of work
>to make that happen...good meta tags, getting a name out
I think Google somewhat ignores meta tags because of the abuse they received
a few years ago. They say that to get up high on Google, you need many
pages linking to your site. But then, in the last couple weeks, Google has
put measures in place to counter that sort of manipulation. Check out the
recent Slashdot thread:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/26/1458203&mode=thread&tid=111&tid=126&tid=187&tid=95
(if any spaces appear in the link, remove them)
2 or 3 weeks ago, I didn't exist in Google. Now I have a site that hits 3d
place on the 1st page with the right search (1st page Yahoo and AOL too -
but I don't exist in MSN) (search is: anagama book). Yet I have nothing in
my meta headers describing my page. I also am not aware of more than one
link to my page, so it wasn't link manipulation.
What I do have is a lot of text. Pictures are nice but they don't parse
into search terms. I think that is the key - real paragraphs that
incorporate words peculiar to the content of your site. So, where I have
pictures, I also have blurbs.
The other thing, I'm hosted on a large hosting site. I don't know if it
makes a difference, but here is anecdotal evidence that it does: Checking
my logs, just about 2 weeks ago a googlebot crawled my site. A week later I
existed in Google. In comparison, I have a website for my day job on a
local hosting company's server. Googlebots have never been there and even
after a year, I don't exist in google (which is fine - it's not the kind of
work you get through a website anyway). And also, my
"doesn't-exist-in-google" site has well crafted meta headers. It's hard to
get on google if google doesn't come look at you.
So, it might be worth trying one of the larger hosting companies - cheaper
too. I pay $7/month for 500 mb storage/50gb bandwidth at the large co. My
local provider gives 50 mb/5gb for $20/month. I just might switch that one
over too! ;-)
om
Chris Schafale on fri 12 dec 03
The other point that I would make is that it helps to have a specific product
that people search for by name. If your keywords are "pottery" and
"stoneware", well, keep your day job. I have some specific products like
French butter keepers and communion ware, and if you search for those
items in Google, you will find that my site comes up near the top. People do
find me that way on a regular basis, and I've been getting enough orders to
keep me busy during the January-August time when I used to just putter
around waiting for Christmas. I do still have a day job though.....
Chris
On 11 Dec 2003 at 21:23, mel jacobson wrote:
> selling on the net is the same as selling at home.
> the word has to get out.
>
> there are millions of websites out there...what
> makes anyone think that folks are going to flock to yours?
>
> you have to let people know, have to get your name and
> address out there. not to mention a website that people
> can follow.
>
> it is not an accident that when you put `mel jacobson` in google
> my name comes up first. it has taken a hell of a lot of work
> to make that happen...good meta tags, getting a name out
> there...writing, and of course clayart. it is never accidental.
> it is hard work, and promotion.
>
> in many cases, it takes years to get your website located and
> used by folks. mine is not a great selling website...that is not
> the intent. i sell stuff, mail it off. 4-5 good pots a month.
> but, it is still out there. things are happening.
>
> we worked hard to make the new rid-a-tick website rise
> on the list. it is first in several categories. now, that one
> will pay off, big time. we are keeping it simple, a story.
> and, several clayarters have helped me, big time.
>
> just don't jump into web commerce and think you will have orders
> over night. it takes a good deal of time...and effort, just like
> backyard sales. it takes years and patience to make it happen.
> but, every year you wait, is another year you have to catch the
> crowd. pushing ahead...clawing ahead.
> if you are shy, and want to wait...well the line is long.
> mel
> From:
> Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.A.
> web site: my.pclink.com/~melpots
> or try: http://www.pclink.com/melpots
> new/ http://www.rid-a-tick.com
>
> ______________________________________________________________________________
> Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
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> settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
> Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
Light One Candle Pottery
Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, USA
(south of Raleigh)
candle@intrex.net
http://www.lightonecandle.com
Christy Pines on fri 12 dec 03
You can add text to a web page that does not display, if that gets in
the way of your aesthetic. Every time you put a picture on a web page,
you can add an "alt" tag and put a nice long description of the picture
right there. Some people (perhaps more in the "old" days than today)
surf with images turned off, so that pages would load quickly. The alt
tag served to tell them what the picture was. If they were interested in
seeing the image after reading the description in the alt tag, they
could then elect to download the picture.
Also, the alt tag is what appears if you hover your cursor over an
image. If you create your own web site, adding the alt tag is easy,
depending on the software you use. I work so much in the straight html
code that I can see exactly where it goes. But even my WYSIWYG software
for web page building has a place to enter the text that accompanies
pictures.
Adding text to the alt tag serves the same purpose as text on the page
when it comes to a search engine finding and categorizing your web site.
christy in connecticut, with a web site of my home but not pots yet.
Odin Maxwell wrote:
>snipped
>
>What I do have is a lot of text. Pictures are nice but they don't parse
>into search terms. I think that is the key - real paragraphs that
>incorporate words peculiar to the content of your site. So, where I have
>pictures, I also have blurbs.
>
>
SusanRaku@AOL.COM on sat 13 dec 03
In a message dated 12/12/2003 6:43:21 AM Eastern Standard Time,
om@ANAGAMA-WEST.COM writes:
> The other thing, I'm hosted on a large hosting site. I don't know if it
> makes a difference, but here is anecdotal evidence that it does: Checking
> my logs, just about 2 weeks ago a googlebot crawled
Please tell us what hosting site you recommend and what is a googlebot?
Susan
Odin Maxwell on sun 14 dec 03
On Sat, 13 Dec 2003 15:05:08 EST, SusanRaku@AOL.COM wrote:
>Please tell us what hosting site you recommend and what is a googlebot?
I don't want to spam the list, so I'll email the name privately. As always
YMMV, I feel I got lucky in many ways and I should make it clear that this
idea about some hosting companies being searched by google more often is
mere conjecture on my part. That said:
A googlebot is a program from google that retrieves information about
websites for google's index. It downloads information off your site to
google's computers so that the information can be categorized, rated, and
provided to google's users based on their searches.
Here is everything you may want to know about googlebots:
http://www.google.com/bot.html
And this is the general info page about google:
http://www.google.com/bot.html
Happy Searching! ;-)
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