An interesting chat session with HostGator Support

Oct 03, 2008 1 Comment »

I recently shifted a few of my websites from DreamHost to HostGator and was having some email issues with the new host. Here’s a chat session I just had with one of their support persons.

Gary A.: Welcome to HostGator, My name is Gary. What can I assist you with today?
Amrit: hello Gary.

Amrit: it’s an email related question

Amrit: my contact form, that used to work at dreamhost, is not working now from hostgator and it has a peculiar problem

Amrit: http://amrithallan.com/contact.php

Amrit: it goes to every email accept for amrit AT amrithallan DOT com

Amrit: would you know why?

Amrit: i’m using google as my email server (changed the MX records), but i don’t think that makes a difference

Amrit: are you there?

Gary A.: Well, if it sends elsewhere, but not to the email that you have hosted at google.

Gary A.: Then It would be a gmail issue.

Amrit: yes, but it goes to other gmail accounts

Amrit: and when i forward the message from other emails, then it goes to amrit AT amrithallanDOTcom

Amrit: i mean, emails are coming from other email accounts, but not from the contact form, but the contact form is working with every other email

Amrit: i hope i’m not confusing you

Gary A.: I understand, but that’s not our server that’s having the problem them, it’s googles, considering that it sends fine elsewhere. That email acocunt might need to whitelist the one that’ it’s being sent from

Amrit: but this problem started only when i switched to your server

Amrit: from dreamhost it was working fine

Amrit: i transferred the files as it is

Amrit: dreamhost is another hosting provider

Amrit: since the only thing that has changed is the server, there must be some issue in this fact

Gary A.: If that were the case though, why would it only be that one email address that’s not hosted with us not receive the email?

Amrit: i know

Amrit: i’m puzzled too. could it be that an email cannot be sent from the same domain? something like that?

Amrit: i mean, i’m trying to send an email from http://amrithallan.com/contact.php to amrit AT amrithallan DOT com. could that be the issue?

Amrit: same domain?

Amrit: as i said, the problem was not there with the previous host

Gary A.: Well, as I said, it’s working at other emails, since mail isn’t hosted on our server and the scripti is sending, it’s not the server not sending the message

Gary A.: IT’s the mail server not accepting.

Amrit: can this thing be resolved somehow? is it your IP address that the google server doesn’t like?

Gary A.: Why would it send to other mail accounts at google then? It’s sending the mail, it’s that email address that it’s sending to that has the problem.

Amrit: yes, but the point is, the problem only began when i switched to your host, so THAT must be factoring somewhere

Amrit: found this: http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/
FreeBSD/questions/2008-06/msg01728.html

Amrit: sorry, it got posted twice

Amrit: got it!

Amrit: the solution is in your control panel where you change the MX records

Amrit: i think you should check that out in case another customer has the same problem

Amrit: this box should be left unchecked: "Always accept mail locally even if the primary mx does not point to this server."

Amrit: I was checking it

Amrit: see…the problem was not with the google mail

Gary A.: Then why did you tell me it sends to other emails accounts configured to the same MX records?

Amrit: i didn’t. i said it was going to other gmail accounts…please check above what i said.

Gary A.: Is there anything else I can help you with?

Amrit: no, thanks

Chat session has been terminated by the site operator.

How not to depend much on search engines

Sep 19, 2008 11 Comments »

95% of my writing business depends on search engine traffic. This is a dangerous situation. What if something happens – some change in the ranking algorithms, something that is not liked at my website – and my listings vanish from the search engine result pages? Does this mean I should pack my bags? Although I can start all over again and try to get back into the search engine results but this is a very shaky situation and I am sure many of you too are faced with the same dilemma. What is the best way to deal with such a situation?

Let us except that the search engines are very powerful promotional tools and they should never be excluded from your Internet marketing effort, but they should never be the sole suppliers of your traffic. With millions of websites scattered all over the Internet it is not too ambitious to try to get some traffic from these websites directly. I will again emphasize that you can get the best traffic from search engines because when people come from search engines they are already looking for a specific search term and this may not happen if they are coming directly from a website. But then the advantage of getting traffic from a website is that a person clicks on your link fully knowing where he or she is heading to. So how can you generate traffic outside of the search engines? Here are a few thoughts; you are welcome to add yours.

Publish a blog

Regularly publishing a blog is the best way of driving high-quality traffic to your website without having to depend on search engines. Although blogs get tons of traffic from search engines due to the way they are published, a lot of traffic also comes from other websites and blogs and this is an advantage not enjoyed by conventional websites. People are constantly linking to blog posts, commenting about them, commenting on them and recommending them to their readers and friends. There are even many social bookmarking websites just to promote blog content among various readers and blog publishers. In few instances some bloggers have been blocked by the search engines (that is, their links didn’t show up on the search result pages) for violating various rules but the blockage didn’t affect them much although they did notice it and wrote about it. The mere act of writing about the blockage got them hundreds of thousands of hits from other blogs and websites. They couldn’t have generated such massive traffic merely from search engines. Once your blog has crossed the popularity threshold you don’t have to worry much about search engine traffic.

Have quality content on your website or blog

Interesting content draws crowds to your blog or website. People not only read the content they also like to link to it whenever possible, and if they are really impressed they put a permanent link to your blog on their blog or website. Quality content also enhances your credibility and people begin to trust you for your opinion. You get tons of repeat traffic. Great content also encourages your visitors to subscribe to your RSS feeds and this also helps you increase and maintain your readership – this readership doesn’t have to depend on search engines to find your blog and consume your content and consequently, generate business for you.

Be active on social media websites, online forums and blogs

We live in a conversation economy; lots of business is generated by encouraging conversation between buyers and sellers. But this is just one small aspect of social media marketing. What you are actually doing is establishing long-lasting relationships with different individuals. You don’t necessarily have to do it for a selfish reason because being social means giving more than taking. Be useful to people and people will be useful to you. Be an interesting person, be a resourceful person and people won’t take you as a business bug. Try to interact with people through Twitter, FaceBook, Plurk, Digg, Pownce, etc. Often it is not possible to track conversations on all social media websites so just focus on a couple or even a single website but do it thoroughly and establish yourself there as an authority. Network with as many people as possible.

Similarly, constructively interact on various online forums because you can get lots of quality traffic from these forums. Don’t spam and don’t leave meaningless comments just to leave your links because this doesn’t work; people don’t click your link if they don’t like what you have written. You should also leave comments on other blogs to let people know about the existence of your blog or website. But make sure that you add value to the ongoing discussion and this means read the content present on the blog or website carefully, think about it, and only then add your opinion.

Distribute your content to blogs and websites

There are many blogs that would eagerly accept your guest posts provided you have written something really worth reading and captivating. When these bloggers publish your blog post, what is known as guest blog post, they often put a small profile of yours under the post or over it with the link connecting to your blog or website.

Similarly you can submit succinct, useful articles to various websites and article submission websites. These article submission websites draw lots of traffic from search engines; this way you can get indirect traffic from search engines in case your own website or blog vanishes from there.

Include your link in your e-mail signature

This might not look like much but you never know where your e-mail may end up and who might click on the link you have included in your signature. And anyway having a link is a lot better than not having it. This can be really effective if you send out lots of e-mails on a regular basis.

Publish a newsletter

In terms of the Internet this is one of the oldest surviving modes of communicating with your visitors. When they visit your website encourage investors to subscribe to your newsletter so that they can receive regular updates from you. Although this can be same as subscribing to your RSS feeds but your newsletter is a bit different – people don’t need an RSS reader first of all to read your updates, and second, it will be difficult for you to publish everything on your blog; sometimes you need to communicate only through e-mail. Publishing a newsletter is one of the greatest ways of getting tons of highly targeted traffic to your website without having to depend on search engines.

Do share on this blog if you are aware of more methods of generating targeted traffic to your website or blog without search engines.

10 ways to get regular content for your website or blog

Sep 12, 2008 2 Comments »

To be successful on the Internet you constantly need to communicate with written words. Written words – the content on your website or blog – constantly convey your thoughts to your visitors. They attract new visitors and keep the old visitors hooked to your writing. But this also involves writing regularly. The more regular you are, the greater is the level of interaction and communication. Agreed, networking and interacting on other blogs and online forums do play a vital part, eventually it is your content that wins you the day.

Unless you have ideas of encyclopedic dimensions it is very difficult to come up with new ideas and new matter on a daily basis. You can do this without external help if this is the only thing you do: thinking about and generating content for your blog or website. But if you have only got, say between half-an-hour to one hour, to think about what to write, collect your thoughts and plan them and then write them down, it becomes an uphill task and often gets assigned to the back burner. Here are a few things that can help you get regular content for your website or blog:

1. Hire a content writer or a team of writers: You can hire writing services according to your budget but this is the best option if you have no time to research and write content for your blog or website. The person that you hire most probably has experience researching online and coming up with fresh and relevant content. This doesn’t mean that you assign the entire responsibility of creating content for your blog a website to your content writer, you will need to constantly keep a vigil and make sure that the content tallies with the fundamental philosophy of your blog or website.
2. Subscribe to RSS feeds: There can be an information overload when you are subscribed to too many RSS feeds but your RSS feeds subscriptions can prove to be the best resource to get fresh writing ideas. You just need to stick to the most important blogs and content websites while tracking your RSS feeds. Don’t rush while subscribing because this will eventually lead you to around 1000+ subscriptions and the mere number will dissuade you from even opening your RSS reader. Subscribe to RSS feeds judiciously and follow them closely in order to get fresh updates.
3. Use blog search: Many search engines, including the good old Google let you conduct searches on various blogs. You can use your favorite search term to check what all people are writing on it and then come up with your own content accordingly.
4. Read about your topic: Reading gives you lots of writing ideas as it fills your mind with your thoughts and wisdom. Whether you agree with what you are reading or not you have something to say, either pro or against. Reading also expands your knowledge-base and the more you know the more comfortable you get writing on your topic. Read books relevant to your field, read blogs and websites that talk about your topic, and interact on online forums. Of course you will need to keep a tab on your time in case you don’t have much time to spare.
5. Visit content aggregation websites: Content aggregation websites such as popurl.com, alltop.com, digg.com, etc. publish lots of highly relevant and contextual links with great regularity. Make it a point to visit these content and aggregation websites routinely. It is better if you can go to them at least once a day but you can decide your schedule according to your work schedule.
6. Interact as much as you can: Regular interaction exposes you to newer opinions and varying ideas. Interact with people who are already doing great things in your field. For instance if you want to write about blogging then you should try to regularly interact with people who are successful bloggers. You can use social media networking websites like Twitter and FaceBook to keep track of the ongoing conversations. For these social media networking websites there are many online tools that help you track conversations according to topics and keywords. Actively participate in these forums. But be sure of what you are communicating.
7. Use your existing content for new ideas: Many of your existing blog posts and articles may carry further topics and subtopics. Sometimes an entire article can be created out of one subheading. For instance, if you wrote a blog post on the benefits of regular blogging you might have written about using blogging as a great blogging tool and you might have written just one paragraph on the topic. Why not write a complete blog post or an article on that?
8. Invite your visitors to give you ideas: Lots of bloggers ask their visitors what they would like to read on the blog. I think this is a great way of getting new writing ideas because after all the most difficult part of writing regularly is getting writing ideas. Once you have a topic it is much easier to come up with the content. You can ask your visitors to give ideas regarding what they would like to read on your blog or website through the comments section.
9. Maintain an ideas file: Ideas are like the sparkling fireflies; they happen randomly and unless you have reached Nirvana, you can hardly control them. It is always better to devise a mechanism to preserve them whenever they grace you. You should maintain an ideas file and keep storing ideas whenever they occur so that you can refer to it whenever you need to get some new writing ideas.
10. Be passionate about your topic: Your mind brims with new and exciting ideas when you are passionate about the theme of your blog or website. Your passion helps you focus and work harder towards collecting your thoughts and expressing them; people can feel the passion in your words and expressions. But can you be passionate about something you are not comfortable with? This dilemma is often faced by professional writers because they have to write on myriad topics with unwavering interest. How do they keep the flame of passion burning all the time? They derive their passion from the fact that they have to write well no matter on what they are writing. In a similar manner you can seek passion in your topic too.

Aside from these activities you can also syndicate content from various organizations that provide regular content to blogs, online magazines, online newspapers and websites.

When you regularly update your website or blog it shows that you are serious about talking to your visitors. It doesn’t always have to be prim and proper and you can be especially yourself on your blog provided you are not discussing your pyjama parties and doggy excursions all the time on your Internet marketing blog; the content should always be relevant to your theme and must always have a target audience.

What matters? Content quality or content quantity?

Sep 09, 2008 1 Comment »

These days I get lots of queries from clients requiring bulk content on various topics, for instance, real estate market or car rental service. They want cheap content, mostly centered around their keywords and key phrases and they aren’t bothered much about the quality. They want plenty of pages having their keywords, and they don’t want to seem spammy to search engine crawlers. They want traffic from search engines, and they’re often sure that once they get lots of traffic, they’ll generate business too.

Why you need content for you website?

You need content on your website to convey ideas, to convince your visitors to buy from you or do business with you, or to describe your products and services. Your website needs to communicate to your visitors. You can use videos, graphics, images or text to convey your message. Since on this blog we mostly deal with written content I would like to talk in terms of textual content on your website.

Why quantity matters sometimes

Quantity does not mean putting all sorts of junk on your website. Even when you talk in terms of quantity content has to be there; maybe the quality is not that good. When you have lots of content talking about your topic it makes your website into a resource – okay, maybe not a quality resource but still there is lots of information on your website that can be derived from the massive quantity of content you publish. Quantity, as long as it is not out and out trash, is also good for your search engine rankings. It gives plenty of pages to the search engine crawlers to crawl and index with a wide selection of keywords and important key phrases.

Why quality always matters

Some top blogs on the Internet have merely 500 blog posts but they still have thousands of comments and great traffic. This could have only been achieved by high quality content. Quantity rarely attracts genuine traffic, but quality does. Quality traffic makes your blog or website into quality resource that people like to visit again and again. Quality content also gets linked to from other websites a lot; this way you get lots of inbound links and this is good for your search engine rankings.

A combination of both is good

Personally I always suggest that one should focus on quality and a little bit of promotion. Junk content is available all over the Internet and it hardly matters how much of it you have on your website. On the other hand quality content is rare to be found and therefore people really like it and treasure it. Quality content, and lots of it, is a killer combination. Add a little bit of promotion and you don’t have to spend on some other kind of promotion.

Given a choice you should always prefer quality over quantity when it comes to your website or blog content. This is not some idealistic sentiment; it really does work.

Social Media Marketing Best Practices

Aug 28, 2008 3 Comments »

A few years ago I came across an Amway couple… those sorts who befriend you in order to encourage you to sign up under them or buy their merchandise. The sole purpose for them behind making new contacts and acquaintances was to generate leads. Even when they organized a social occasion it was mainly to showcase their products and again, to sign up new members under them. This was when I came across this expression “networking”. People network to further their careers and grow their businesses. There is nothing wrong in that as long as you don’t pester people with your never-ending ideas and product offers. For a long time the expression “networking” carried a negative connotation for me.

When I started reading about social media marketing I equated with networking. People were basically networking to get new friends and generate more leads. It took me some time to realize that social networking is not just mercantile; you establish many rewarding relationships with people from all over the world coming from different fields and professions. You make friends, sometimes great friends, and in the process there is nothing wrong if those friends want to work with you on professional assignments or if they want to recommend you to their friends and colleagues. I think one of the greatest benefits of actively participating in the process of social media marketing is that it is not blind marketing; you learn so much and you share so much.

Keeping this in mind, a few months ago I started using Twitter on a regular basis. Compared to other people there, my “regular” means quite an overstatement, but at least I have started visiting the website on a daily basis. I’m getting some great links and messages from highly experienced and socially active experts. So much good information is available provided you have access to it; otherwise it is all-encompassing wilderness.

Mitch Joel has started a thread on the best practices of social media marketing. Here is the post where he has as initiated the idea. Although I’m not experienced in social media marketing my personal experience has shown that it helps you a lot to carefully listen to the conversations going around. This way you get to assimilate lots of wisdom. Listening also helps you gauge the general trend in your field. For instance I am trying to follow conversations of people involved with social media marketing, online copywriting and content writing, search engine optimization, creative writing, blogging and Internet technology. So far I don’t feel like sharing my own thoughts because although I read a lot and I’m pretty much comfortable supplying content to my clients there is still a lot to learn before I can contribute. So I think listening and understanding the conversations going on in the social media marketing seen can be a worthy component of social media marketing best practices.