The key element to your success is you. It is what you do today that will determine whether you succeed or fail. Beyond that it comes down to consistency. It's what you do every day that will bring results. Sporadic efforts here and there will not yield success long term.

So your first objective is to figure out what you are going to build a site around. Write down your interests and various topics that may be relative to those interests. Once you have a list then its time to start researching.

The key to effective research is focus. Focus can be achieved by understanding what your objectives are and what can help you achieve those objectives. As you know you need traffic to your site to have any hope of making money. No traffic means no money.

So you will need to research markets that have a high level of activity online. The ideal scenario is to find keywords that get searched a lot and have little competition. With that said you have to be careful.

Competition in actual fact is good because it means that there is money to be made in that market. So what you need to do is find ways to enter the market using less competitive keywords yet still be able to generate income relative to the main keyword.

For example with weight loss there are many ways to enter that market without going after the main keyword. Example; lose belly fat, or lose weight by eating healthy foods and so on. I think you get the idea.

Once you have the keywords that you can compete with you will then need to build your site using each keyword to build a page around. You will need to structure your web pages so that you get the right keyword density.

To conclude there are lots of site builders out there to help you with this. The one I had the most success with was site build it. They cover all of the above and also take care of the hosting. This way all you have to do is engage in your passion.

Just what is a 301 Redirect?

There seems to be a lot of confusion as to what to do when you move, delete, or want to redirect incoming web traffic from an 'old' web page to a 'new' web page. A 301 redirect is the most efficient method for web page redirection from an old web page to a new web page location. There is also some confusion as to how to handle the complete move or redirection from one web domain to another web domain. According to Google, "If you need to change the URL of a page as it is shown in search engine results, we recommended that you use a server-side 301 redirect instead."

How to Set Up a 301 Redirect

Depending on your web environment, there are several methods to set up a 301 redirect. A 301 redirect is not that hard to implement and it should preserve your search engine rankings for that particular page or web domain.

.htaccess 301 Redirection

The .htaccess file needs to be placed in the root directory of your old website. In this example, we are redirecting incoming web traffic from an old domain to a new domain.

Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteEngine on

RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newdomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

The .htaccess file is the most common method used for 301 web site redirection.

PHP 301 Redirection

You would place this code in a file at the old location.

Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );

Header( "Location: http://www.new_location.com" );?>

IIS 301 Redirection

• In Internet Services Manager, you need to right click on the file or folder you wish to redirect
• Select the radio button titled "a redirection to a URL".
• Enter the redirection web page
• Check "The exact URL entered above" and the "A permanent redirection for this resource"
• Click on 'Apply'

That is all there is to it.

There are other methods in addition to set up a 301 redirection which include coding for ASP, ASP.NET, Java, CGI, Cold Fusion and Ruby on Rails. The above are the most common that I've encountered. When set up correctly, a 301 redirect will preserve your search engine rankings when it is necessary to move files around or switch, or consolidate, domain names.

A part of web development is copywriting. Excellent copy means it has to be appealing to both readers and to search engines. This combination will help websites to rank highly. A problem occurs when there are space constraints to a site, page layout requirements or other issues.

Because appealing to both readers and search engines is so important, you don't want to sacrifice one for the other. Adding a big block of copy to the middle of a page may not be the best answer, however, if a page needs content, adding a couple of sentences to the bottom of each section is a good option. Your copy will still be readable and the additional content will appeal to the search engines.

There are some things to remember when writing content for a website.

• Web users are active. One click and they have left your site. If they don't see a reason to stay, they won't. There is a 10 - 15 second window available to capture a visitor's attention.
• The longer the text is, the less likely they are to read it. With long text, they will skim it, if they bother to read it at all.
• Web users don't believe in hype. If you want a web user to believe you and to believe in you, you must back up your claims.

Four questions must be answered on each page:

• What am I doing here?
• How do I do it?
• What's in it for me?
• Where can I go, next?

If your design and navigation isn't obvious, then you need to explain it in the copy. Most visitors will not take the time to figure this information out. If a first time visitor cannot find their way around your site, they will likely never come back.

Unless your visitors are expecting to read something on your page, don't expect that they will read more than one or two lines of copy.

Understanding your copy is as important as length. Don't make the copy so complicated that it is difficult to comprehend or make it so the customer will have to think about it because they won't.

What this means is you want to convey one key idea in just one or two lines. Don't try to add a third line because if you say too much, then even the first idea won't penetrate. If your site needs more content, break it down into sections that are one or two paragraphs each. Say what you want to say in the first sentence and then expand the thought into the paragraph. Use meaningful headers. Most people will only scan the headers to the paragraphs and not even bother with the copy on the page, unless it is something that appeal to them. It is better to write only one or two lines with links to another page with the longer copy.

Even when users are expecting to find text heavy content, don't expect they will take the time to read all of it. Longer copy doesn't have to be as abrupt as shorter text, but it needs to be as easy to read.

Make your copy clear, but not boring. Lively writing with an unassuming voice is best. Boring writing will turn your reader off and nothing you say at that point will make it through.