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| ADVERTISEMENT |
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CAPTCHA GOT YOUR SPAM?
Captcha is a term for a technology used on website forms to stop spam attacks. By having to verify the character listing of a graphic before submitting a form, the programming verifies that the user is a human and not an automated spam program.
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 HOLIDAY TOY DRIVE This past holiday season, Dezins held its annual toy drive to collect gifts in support of Hurricane Katrina relief. As we all know, we are still a long way from getting our people back to New Orleans and this is one way Dezins chooses to help out.
The generosity was overwhelming as we topped last year's drive. The collected toys were given to the YWCA of Greater Baton Rouge who distributed them to the families. A special thank you to all those who participated. Click here to read some of the thank you notes we received from our families. Dezins offers a special thank you to Doug Leyda of the YWCA.
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BACKUP YOUR FILES Our experience has taught us many things here at Dezins and recently we learned another valuable lesson... BACKUP YOUR FILES... OFTEN. After an accidental deletion over our network we lost a valuable folder. The interesting part is that we have a backup system for all of our client files, but neglected backing up our operating files as often. There are many options for backing up your files including exterior hard drives, online backup systems and off-site backup systems. The message here is save yourself the headache and use one of them.
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 WINDOWS VISTA
As we all know, Windows Vista is now available and yes it is a great operating system. The Windows Vista operating system offers tools to analyze your current system and software for compatability issues. Use them. Otherwise you might find yourself locked out of your accounting software, without access to your printer and maybe your network. These are just hypothetical situations that of course we have had no experience (wink - wink).
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DEZINS APPS IS COMING Dezins' programmer, Sam Razi, has been developing a new set of applications for Dezins that we have called Dezins Apps and there premier is Summer 2007.
This is a very exciting development for us becuase we will have a set of online applications that you can test for yourself. Some of the initial applications will include a client managed photo gallery, news/events page, content page and DeepMetrix web stat software. Near future additions will include podcasting and RSS news feeds.
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| TWO NEW ADDITIONS TO DEZINS WEBSITE We've added two new features to the Dezins website. First we've added a web page that shows clients how to access their Deep Metrix LiveStats software. Deep Metrix is one of the most advanced web monitoring softwares available and it comes FREE with all Dezins hosting packages. And we've added a handy section called Keyword Generators to help you generate targeted keywords using Google and Yahoo technology. Give them a try for yourself.
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| EMAILING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION Please don't email any of your personal information. Email is NOT secure. Information sent in emails can be stolen. So under no circumstances should you ever email any of your information including driver's license, social security or credit card numbers. |
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MCDONALD, NOLAN AND SOSSAMON The McDonald Group is proud to announce the creation of McDonald, Nolan and Sossamon Real Estate Group, LLC., serving Baton Rouge, Ascension, Livingston and the surrounding areas. In today's competitive real estate market, timing is everything. Let the experts at McDonald, Nolan and Sossamon provide you the edge that you need. www.mnshomes.com
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SAFETYPRO RESOURCES Roux Safety & Loss Control has begun a new venture that is targeted at recruiting and staffing top talent in the local Safety, Health, and Environmental market. The new subsidiary, SafetyPro Resources, LLC, bridges the gap between companies seeking qualified HSE professionals, and jobseekers looking to make a change in their careers.
SafetyPro Resources also provides Spanish speaking safety professionals to address the emerging workforce in that area.
For more information on services SafetyPro Resources provides, please call (800) 247-7011 or email lroux@safetyproresources.com.
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JUNETEENTH FREEDOM FESTIVAL Make sure and mark your calendars for this year's Juneteenth Freedom Festival held in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, Friday, June 8 - Sunday, June 10.
This year promises to be bigger than ever with food, fun and lots of music. There will be a Children's Village Tent, Geneaology and Black Inventors booths, art contest and show and of course the annual Freedom Parade.
Entertainment will include The Marva Wright Band, The Wild Magnolias Indians and recording artist, Cupid. The annual talent show will be held Friday with live blues, jazz and R&B all day Saturday and Sunday boasts all day Gospel.
Festival details can be found at africanamericanmuseum.org.
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STARLITE BIDS FAREWELL TO BATON ROUGE As many of you may know by now, Starlite's Baton Rouge location has closed. They certainly enjoyed meeting and serving their customers in Baton Rouge , as well as, seeing their Gonzales customers stop in for lunch or a latte. This really proves their initial belief that Baton Rouge enjoys Starlite.
They will certainly entertain the idea to return to Baton Rouge but their main focus is to continue moving forward with their Gonzales location and strive to bring to their customers a great atmosphere with great food.
But don't worry Baton Rouge, Gonzales is only 20 minutes away and Starlite is always available at www.starliteespressocafe.com.
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RAPUNZEL AT ACT Rapunzel, Ascension Community Theatre’s upcoming Second Stage Production, is based on the classic fairytale. The play was written by Sharon O'Brien with music and additional lyrics by Fred Palmisano. This production is sure to please the young and not- so- young with some new characters and new music.
RAPUNZEL rehearses nightly at the Pasqua Theatre where it will debut on Thursday, May 10 and run through Sunday, May 13. All performances are at 7:00pm, except for the Sunday performance, which is in the afternoon at 2:00pm. Tickets can be purchased at the Pasqua Theatre, 823 Felicity St., Gonzales, LA or by calling 647-1230. Also for information, visit the website: ascension communitytheatre.org. |
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CALLING ALL ARTISTS - YOUNG AND OLD It's time to submit your work for the annual Juneteenth Festival Art Contest and Show! CASH PRIZES! ADULT AND YOUTH CATEGORIES
AND there is a two-day art show where you can display and sell your work. But you've got to move fast, entry forms are due May 18.
Get full event details and entry forms at www.dezins.com/juneteenth |
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| Pay-Per-Click Makes Sense |
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By: Orhan Mc Millan
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Pay-per-click is one of the best ways to increase the number of visitors to your website, while keeping the cost of advertising down. Because you only pay for what you use, none of your valuable advertising dollars are wasted.
| NEW CLIENT |
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| COMPLIANCE SOLUTIONS GROUP offers a full range of environmental, health, and safety (EHS) services with the highest degree of professionalism and with proven results. |
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0507/0607
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Keyword searches on major engines like "Overture" and "Google" are the most common way for people to explore the internet and find sites that meet their needs. Both of these popular search engines and others offer Pay-Per-Click. Pay-Per-Click allows a business to pay to keep their website at the top of search results, by outbidding competitors on specific keywords. A business decides how much it is willing to spend each time a search engine sends them a visitor, then the search engine and their partner engines organize search results with the highest paying businesses listed first.
Pay-Per-Click provides each business with an account where that business can set keywords and the price per click. Accounts are user friendly, and once keywords have been activated, a business can (and should) monitor the results regularly.
The advantages of using Pay-Per-Click are obvious. By only asking a business to pay when a person selects its website from the search results list, Pay-Per-Click is an excellent way to make sure your advertising budget is well spent. Also, no changes need to be made to your existing website look or content. In addition, creating a Pay-Per-Click account is simple and quick, with results almost immediately, unlike standard SEO campaigns.
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THE CREDIT MEDIC ONLINE assists the consumer in legally raising their credit scores and removing erroneous information. Unlike credit repair companies that can actually damage your credit score, they partner with you, and show you how you can easily and quickly raise your credit scores, and restore your good name.
www.thecreditmediconline.com
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0507/0607
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Pay-Per-Click advertising does have limitations, however. New higher bids by competitors can lower your ranking, forcing you to increase your bid to maintain your position while other businesses do the same. Monitoring your ranking becomes an important part of using Pay-Per-Click and requires time. Moreover, competition for keywords may drive the price of high rankings through the roof, making it too expensive to continue. Lastly, some people using search engines now recognize PPC results as paid advertising and bypass them without consideration.
The Pay-Per-Click campaign process has four steps, and begins by determining how much each visitor to your site is worth. Using a basic formula which divides monthly net profit by the number of visitors during a month, you can figure out approximately how much each visitor is worth. From there, it is up to you to decide which keywords are worth investing in, and how much to invest in each. It may make sense to settle for a lower ranking on the most popular keywords, and bid on other less popular search terms to end up paying an acceptable amount per visitor.
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Pay-Per-Click is a great form of search engine advertising because it provides each business with an account where that business can set keywords and the price per click. Therefore you get great placement and only pay for the clicks you receive. Here are some helpful links to get you started.
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After determining a visitor's worth, you must select key words that will lead visitors to your site. Well chosen keywords and phrases are essential to your online success, and PPC encourages the use of as many as you can afford. Do not be afraid to include a number of key phrases and words that may not be used much-- the cost is low because you only pay when someone uses that search term to find you.
Once your keywords and phrases have been set, you must write a description of your site to appear alongside the link to your site in the search results list. Remember: the object of these descriptions is lure only highly-targeted traffic, not every browser or "tire kicker," since you must pay every time your site is selected from the list. Make the descriptions of your business very specific up front. If you sell books, but only textbooks, make this clear immediately so you don't have to pay every time a mother searching for a Dr. Seuss book visits your site only to discover it has nothing she wants.
Finally, you must monitor your Pay-Per-Click campaign regularly. Rankings can change daily, and competition for top placement often results in bidding wars. If the price of a keyword gets too high, you should find more moderately priced keywords and phrases rather than lose money. Your rankings are not the only thing you should monitor, however. View your click-through rates and study your visitor’s habits monthly so you can modify your campaign as necessary.
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| GRAUGNARD FURNITURE AND APPLIANCE located on Railroad Avenue in Donaldsonville, Louisiana prides itself in offering hometown service, great prices and a large selection of items that make your house a home. |
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0507/0607
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One more thing to keep in mind when considering a Pay-Per Click campaign is the frequency and cost of "click fraud". Click fraud occurs when businesses, persons, or automated machines click on your link with the sole intent of costing you money. Click fraud represents approximately 30% of all PPC expenditure, and should be factored into any PPC decision you make.
Even with click fraud and bidding wars, Pay-Per-Click campaigns are an excellent way to bring large numbers of highly-targeted visitors to your site. By giving you the power to spend your advertising budget deliberately, and allowing you to modify and refine your campaign regularly, Pay-Per-Click can be a smart way to grow your business. While the cost of PPC campaigns is likely to rise in the near future due to increased popularity, this method of advertising, when used correctly, can prove effective and profitable.
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| The Importance of Search in Internet Marketing |
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| By: Claudia Bruemmer (c) 2007 |
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For long-time search marketers it will come as no surprise that search has become a media darling. Pay-per-click advertising is the most popular online marketing strategy, and organic search engine optimization provides top click-through and conversion performance.
Search is more popular than display ads and email marketing because of its excellent performance and ROI. Internet marketers should take note of the development in the search marketplace in order to better focus their advertising budgets.
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| LOUISIANA DISASTER RECOVERY FOUNDATION was born in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. LDRF is dedicated to making sure every one of the donated dollars count in addressing the relief and long-term recovery of a better Louisiana. |
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0507/0607
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As the Web grows exponentially, search engine databases suffer from information overload. As a result, technology and consumer search behavior adapts and changes. One of the early attempts to make search easier was the use of metadata in search. The search engine, Clusty (http://clusty.com/) came out in 2004 to "deliver groups or clusters of similar results rather that millions of search results in one long list." The clusters were supposed to help users see search results by topic so they could more easily find what they were looking for.
Another of the early changes to search was the development of multiple databases within general search. Whether you go to Google or Yahoo, you'll see category choices such as Web, video, images, local, news, etc. These are all different databases that can help you target specific queries. Google aptly named this concept its OneBox solution; you could access many different databases from one box.
Along with the development of multiple databases on niche products or subjects came the vertical search engines. These verticals are particularly useful for B2B companies. The latest trend in the evolution of the market is social search engines, which give consumers the ability to interact with search queries, putting the human touch in search results. Social search engines seek to connect people through personalization and human understanding, using community knowledge to increase relevance.
Consumers Are Key Drivers
Social search highlights an important point to remember: consumer behavior has become a key factor in driving the search economy. Consumers are performing more searches as the Web becomes legendary for finding information quickly and effortlessly. It used to be that search was second to email in Web activities, but in 2006, Marketing Sherpa reported that search surpassed email, becoming the most popular online activity. comScore reported that the number of searches in the U.S. grew by 28 percent, year-over-year in August 2006.
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Search features in Internet marketing are ever increasing in importance because as technology changes, the major search engines are evolving to include local, vertical and social searches.
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- Local Search field is relatively open and not nearly as competitive as the general search engine results. Now is a great time for a small business to get into search engine marketing on a local level.
- Vertical Search engines are beginning to lure consumer and B2B searchers away from the general search engines as the desire for more targeted answers and the ability to pose more focused queries increases.
- Social Search is interesting because the engines change search algorithms to include the human factor rather than depend solely on computer data. They not only include consumer-generated content, they can also include human intent.
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While search behavior is changing, the proliferation of Web 2.0 platforms and applications such as social networking, RSS and blogging are impacting search, making it even more complex. The information universe is becoming too vast and complex to catalog by keywords alone. This has resulted in the development of expanded search opportunities into local search, vertical search and social search. Many times, consumers are slow to adopt new search resources. Local and vertical search took several years to gain a foothold. Social search is still in the early stages of development.
Local search is a key growth area. Borrell Associates estimates that local paid search spending reached $1 billion in 2006 and will reach $1.7 billion in 2007. It will continue to rise, reaching $4 billion by 2010, when it will account for 47 percent of local online advertising.
The U.S. Government estimates the number of small businesses at 24 million, all of whom are in a great position to leverage the power of local search. While many small businesses still don't have Web sites, the promise of local search is there for the asking. These businesses spend $90 billion annually on local advertising, mostly in traditional media. This reflects the potential for online advertising growth as businesses shift money from traditional to online advertising because of its effectiveness and ROI.
Nielsen/NetRatings shows that Google is catching up with Yahoo on local searches. Verizon SuperPages and SBC's YellowPages are also big players. As users continue to use the local search option on major engines, local search continues to gain in popularity and advertising revenue. Now is a great time for a small business to get into search engine marketing on a local level. The field is relatively open and not nearly as competitive as the general search engine results.
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THIS MOTHER'S DAY, GIVE A GIFT THAT WILL MAKE THEM GREEN WITH ENVY! Honor your mother with a living legacy that will last thousands of years. Give a gift of beauty and help preserve one of the giants of the earth. Sponsor a Giant Sequoia seedling through WildPlaces' Sponsor-a-Sequoia program and give a gift that will last for 2,000 years.
Learn More
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Vertical Search
Another good option for niche businesses is optimization focused on vertical search engines. Vertical search engines, along with the new social search engines, are beginning to lure consumer and B2B searchers away from the general search engines as the desire for more targeted answers and the ability to pose more focused queries increases. This is an indication that general search leaves many questions unanswered, resulting in lower productivity.
Vertical search engines can provide the targeting that general search engines lack. This is why they are becoming increasingly popular. The market leaders in search, Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, all are focusing efforts in the vertical space in order to respond to the needs of users. Social search is also on the rise with social search engines like Collarity (http://www.collarity.com/) and Rollyo (http://www.rollyo.com/) allowing users to limit irrelevant results and benefit from the collective intelligence of previous searches.
The interesting thing about social search engines is that they change search algorithms to include the human factor rather than depend solely on computer data. They not only include consumer-generated content, they can also include human intent. Collarity delivers search results with consumer-driven answers to queries and allows searchers to select various aspects of a search query. Rollyo allows users to create their own search engine roll, serving information from a preselected list of sites and/or from other users' rolls. The social dimension of the Web and search engines is a fast growing phenomenon, and the major search engines are also experimenting with social search. We've had Yahoo Answers and Google Base in beta for a while, and Microsoft is reportedly negotiating with Eurekster for social search technology.
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ASSURANCE LLC, is an Insurance Premium Installment Service which allows those insured to purchase Property and Casualty insurance with low down payments and low monthly installments. They are here to earn your business and keep it.
www.assurancellc.com
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0507/0607
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As search technology moves forward, new search models will continue to be launched. As the mobile Web and mobile search continue to expand, search queries will drive commerce around the world anytime anywhere, across platforms. This can only enhance the role of search in Internet marketing.
Claudia A. Bruemmer is a former Managing Editor of ClickZ (1998-2001), where she achieved the editorial success resulting in its first sale to Internet.com. Currently a freelance Internet writer, her clients include Bruce Clay, Inc. (http://www.bruceclay.com/), Search Engine Watch (http://searchenginewatch.com/), TopTenWholesale (http://www.toptenwholesale.com/) and more. She can be reached at cbruemmer@bruceclay.com and has a website under construction at claudiabruemmer.com.
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