Some people say that using a splash page as your home page is a bad idea. And that's true. You shouldn't use a splash page as your home page for search engine optimization purposes. Search engines love content, and having a splash page as your home page defeats your purpose of ranking well in the search engines, if that is one of your goals.

A splash page actually is a good idea - if you don't use it as your home page.

For example, a splash page on a traffic exchange is an excellent strategy and it's actually one of the best ways to eke out results from traffic exchanges.

You can set your splash page as an extension. For example, yourdomain.com/splash.html. Then use that for appropriate marketing channels. A splash page works well to get a visitor interested in a site because it's consistent two-step marketing. Get someone to do something, and he is likely to follow-up on whatever you tell him to do next!

So go and create a simple splash page now and use it for marketing channels like traffic exchanges, classified ads, pay per click ads etc. Splash pages are uncannily effective when the situation calls for something less cluttered and more attention grabbing. For the traffic sources mentioned above, splash pages definitely fit the mold.

Hire a graphic designer to create a snazzy graphic for you to use on your splash page. After all, the goal of your page is to capture immediate attention! You can even create a simple Flash movie or even include a video there.

Website development is not magic, and it's not as difficult as some people would like you to believe. The many companies involved in SEO or Search Engine Optimization are correct in stating your site must be "optimized" for the search engines in order to get higher search engine rankings. What they would like you to believe is this is all very technical and sophisticated, and therefore it justifies the prices they charge for their services.

What is in fact highly technical, sophisticated and developed by absolute geniuses, are the search engine algorithms used to rank sites as the "bots" crawl the millions of sites and bring back information. But you need to understand one thing clearly. The search engines are ultimately looking for only one result - fresh content that will be exactly what people like you and I want when we do a search.

When I made my first attempts at website building, I researched everything I could about website development and how to get my website ranked in the top 10 and then using all the technical tricks and tools to make the search engines happy and rank my site high. You can guess what happened...nothing!

The only way you could find my site was for me to actually tell you my URL. Needless to say, I had very little traffic. Then it hit me, why am I trying to outsmart the brilliant people at the search engines who continue to update their search technology on a daily basis? I realized there has to be a better website development method, and went looking. Face it, with out the search engines ranking your site highly; all your work will be for nothing, because your site will be invisible!

I was very lucky to find a company name Site Build It. I signed up with them for $300, and it was the best investment I have made yet in my online adventures. The folks at SiteSell are always on the cutting edge of everything e-business. They've helped tens of thousands of people launch successful Web businesses with SBI!.

I went through their 10 day course and read every page and watched every video. They quickly pointed out the basic misconceptions people have about website development and building sites that are ranked highly by search engines and how to avoid them. What they made clear to me can be summed up in one phrase used often in their course..."content is king!"

You start your website development with a concept or theme, a subject you are passionate about, a subject you believe you can make into a business. Then you do keyword research about your subject to find out how much search activity there is about your subject on the search engines. You also look at what keywords have the highest search demand versus websites supplying that information, and the resulting gap or surplus. When you find gaps, this means there is demand for information about those keywords, and an opportunity for your concept.

Then you build content rich pages around those keywords, and guess what. That is exactly what the search engine algorithms and "bots" are looking for...CONTENT! But you must never forget the most important part of equation will be the humans that will be reading your pages, so as they say in the training - Keep it real! You must write as your having a conversation with someone sitting in front of you.

If website development is magic, then the magic boils down to three key principles.

• Your website must have a theme that you are knowledgeable and passionate about.

• You must understand you will never outsmart the search engines, and the search engines rankings are based on good content around a specific theme and keywords.

• You must keep your human readers in mind as your first priority and develop your content for them.

Keep these basic principles in site at all times and then, and only then, you will get the results you want -- traffic and increased sales!

In the recent past, the Internet has become the prime means of media connection around the world. Aside from providing a fast and inexpensive means of imparting and extracting information, cyberspace has also redefined the very lifestyle of people around the world. From shopping to taking up courses, people have found immeasurable uses for the Internet.

No wonder then that everyone wants a space in cyber world. A website is the means of publishing personal or corporate information over the Internet. It is like a unique telephone number over a vast circuit of telephone lines; or better put, a unique address in the wide world of cyber space.

However, it is a well-known fact that not everybody knows how to create a website. A vast majority of Internet users who would like their very own web address in cyberspace do not have either the skills or the time to learn the intricacies of creating a website.

This is where an awb comes in handy. As the name indicates, an automatic website builder is an application or a group of applications that lets an individual who has no knowledge of underlying website software applications and languages involved build a website without sweat.

Unlike an HTML editor which merely facilitates in the creation of correct HTML scripts, an automatic builder provides the user with web page templates that are already built and can be modified by the user according to his or her preferences. Aside from pre-fabricated templates, some awb provide other important features as well. A number of automatic website builders have Shipping Cart feature that enables web visitors to shop for goods offered at the website. Still, other programs have built-in survey counters that can monitor the traffic of users who visited the website.

An automatic builder makes the process of putting the latest and most relevant information or content in a user's website quick and easy. Having the freshest content in a website means satisfied web visitors. This translates to higher traffic; therefore, improving a website's list ranking in search engines like Google.

Some websites come with a price. The range of prices may be as wide as a few bucks per month for subscription setting to more than a hundred dollars for one-time purchase arrangements. Others can be availed for free.

A purchased website builder provides premium features than a free program. A purchased program can come with unlimited number of website designs which could easily be a means to make money. By creating unique websites for friends and other customers, a user can easily earn additional income. Plus, this type of builder has tie-ups with other certified applications that can be enjoyed for free.

A free application, like the one commonly used for blog websites, has a limited number of website design concepts. There is a high probability that using this type of builder will be prone to pop-ups and third party piggyback advertisements. However, while the uniqueness or even the security of a website may be compromised, a free automatic website builder has zero cost.

Automatic website builders can be classified into to basic types; online and offline. An online builder enables users to edit the website they created using a web browser like Internet Explorer or Netscape. While an offline builder requires users to edit the site in a computer's local application before the edited website can be published. But no matter what type of automatic website builder application is used, the user is sure to have an efficient, effective and a fun way of building websites.

For more internet marketing tips and strategies be sure to follow the link in the resource box below: