Zoltan’s Business News & Blog

Some of the most important factors when ranking a page or website on a specific keyword is (1) the number of external incoming links to the page, (2) the quality and relevance of the page linking to your site and (3) the anchor text. The more quality and relevant sites link to you the better your ranking for your website and page.

Obviously big business directories and b2b portals like TradeHolding.com B2B Network have thousands of incoming links from other quality websites including trade associations, business magazines, government pages, region specific portals, etc. It was / is our job to drive targeted business traffic to our B2B network and implicitly advertise your company, products and offers. We spent years and a lot of money to advertise our network and reach an everyday growing business audience, currently our network is visited every day by about 12,000 business owners, decision makers, sellers and buyers. Obviously, a simple company presentation website with only 4-5 pages can never dream about a similar traffic, unless your company is a well known brand like Microsoft, BMW or Nokia, but you can actually increase your search engine rankings. Most company presentation websites receive less than 5-10 unique visitors / day but with a well prepared SEO campaign you can actually increase this to a few hundred targeted visitors / day. And, if you can convert just 1-2% of your traffic into customers, this would mean an additional 2-5 sales / day! Can you afford to send these customers to competition?

TradeHolding.com B2B Network has an integrated directory on all of our partner sites, these directories contain links to relevant websites on a categorized environment:

• Middle East Websites
• European Websites
• African Websites
• Business Websites

You can add a link to your website from these site sections since 2005 and clever webmaster already used this option to link to their websites. Until now, this was the only section on our websites where we allowed external links to be placed to our network, these pages actually contain only external links to other websites.

Since March 2007, we are testing a new option on 2 partner sites: TradeBoss.com and Middle East Business Directory. We have embedded a link box to the top right corner of company classification pages, these boxes can be rented by companies including a link to their company website. Getting links to your website from these pages obviously have a higher value than the above websites section because these have no outgoing links and the page strength is not divided to many different websites.

How does this work? Imagine that you have a website / page where you are trying to sell crude oil in large qantities. You browse to the relevant category(ies) on Middle East B2B Marketplace: Chemical Companies and / or Crude Oil Companies, click on Add Your Link Here on the top right corner, set the desired anchor text (it should be similar to the page title you are trying to advertise, for example: “ABC Company sells Crude Oil” or “Crude Oil for sale”), page description, personal details, pay for the link and you are ready. The more links to add using similar anchor texts, the better your chances that you will be ranked for that specific term.

Additionally, in 2006, we also launched TradeHolding.org, the Business Links Directory, where you can get free links to your business website.

So, remember: try to concentrate on getting many relevan links to your business website from various relevant sources. This is definitely a must if you intend to be ranked by search engines.

On 11 February I posted in my blog an article: Dating Site With Foto Models. Today,  when I checked my blog stats, I found that I get some traffic through google for the search term: “fotomodels”. I quickly went to google and typed the term: “fotomodels”. I thought that my site will show up somewhere on page 5-10, but no, my post is on the 1st page, the 10th position!

Can you believe this? Just search on google, you’ll see what I mean… Frankly, I have no idea how do I rank for this search term, my post was about fake profiles on dating sites with… fotomodel pictures, but it looks like, I wrote something very interesting. Although, this post was not advertised anywhere (just a few diggs), it looks like this was enough to be listed on page one for a one word term like fotomodels… Thanks Google!

Let’s see where will I rank with this new post, this time… about … fotomodels.

I just read on AGLOCO blog that the viewbar will be most probably released in March. It looks like they are quite under pressure to do so, they are pressed by their shareholders… the members….

“The March target, and all the dates we have projected for the Viewbar release, have been based solely upon our Engineers’ best estimates. I have asked our head techie for a firmer date, but he hasn’t given one to me. If I press him, he can give me an estimate, but he cannot be sure. Anyone who has worked with software engineers knows that they don’t like giving estimates because they know problems come up all the time in software development. For instance, we could give you an exact date only to get a bug in the last day of QA that would blow up that date. When we started the Viewbar software we had one engineer working on it. We now have six. We have incentive - we know that the Viewbar release is the real launch of AGLOCO.”

Also, some members are questioning the success of AGLOCO: “AGLOCO sounds too good to be true. Why am I getting paid without putting anything into it?”. And, let’s see the response he got from an AGLOCO official: “If being “too good” is our only problem, I think we’re in great shape!

Joking aside, seeming “too good to be true” is probably the number one reason people DON’T sign up for AGLOCO. It seems strange to “get something for nothing.” The truth is, you’re not getting something for nothing. You’re giving the Viewbar a small share of your computer monitor, which we (and apparently many advertisers) consider extremely valuable. You are also choosing us as your partner for commissions, referrals, and fees accumulated through everyday browsing. So, instead of some other middleman making this money, AGLOCO makes it. We win, you win, and the advertisers/companies win for getting your business.

Also, if you decide to refer other Members and build the community, you get more because YOU have built the community and provided it with its most valuable resource: more Members. By providing value to AGLOCO, we provide value back to you for your efforts.

So, essentially, AGLOCO doesn’t cost you any money to join, but you are “putting something in it” to reap the returns AGLOCO will provide you. If it’s worth it to share about 3/4-inch of your screen with the Viewbar and possibly to take the time and effort to build our network, you have earned every cent of your AGLOCO payout.”

I believe in AGLOCO success, mainly because I see how much money is in online advertising, and I believe that I won’t lose anything by spending about 2-3 hours of my time every month to promote this idea and my business + recruiting more members. Yes, AGLOCO is my business and it can be yours as well. All you have to do is to Join AGLOCO.

You can also read more about AGLOCO on my blog.

Dave, from Importers.com claim in his post that Importers.com is the number 1 US B2B website. I did not quite understand his points, it is obvious that AliBaba.com has a lot more US visitors than Importers.com.

On that chart, AliBaba.com’s and GlobalSources.com’s ranking is obviously below Importers.com… They are ranked among the top 500 most visited sites in the US while Importers.com is ranked somewhere at position 100,000. So, it looks like David was wrong.

I checked the same data comparing 3 sites: Importers.com, BusyTrade.com (a Hong Kong based B2B website) and TradeHolding.com. Here are 2 charts:

What we see here?

• TradeHolding.com visitors views almost 12 pages / visit, the same value for Importers.com is 6.8 and for BusyTrade.com is 3.3
• Importers.com has 22,000 US visitors / month while TradeHolding.com has 15,000 uniques / month, but we can clearly see from the chart that TradeHolding.com has the fastest growing trend
• If we take into consideration that TradeHolding.com also has some cobranding deals with other B2B websites (including TradeBoss.com, 1stWorldTradePortal.com, DigitalExpo.biz, BeautyB2B.eu, Europe.BloomBiz.com, etc.), most probably we can say that TradeHolding.com B2B Network reaches more US visitors than the stated 15,000.

Why I took these 3 sites? Because there is no sense to compare our sites yet with AliBaba.com, they are far the most known B2B site.

Voi deschide azi o noua telenovela online, si anume legat de spam-ul practicat de cateva site-uri respectabile (?) care nu au gasit alta modalitate decat a-si promova serviciile cu Spam.

Azi, despre ClubAfaceri.ro site serios in care s-a investit mult pentru a ajunge la acest nivel, cel putin astea sunt aparentele. Si, iata ca un Spam trimis la probabil cateva zeci de mii de persoane poate transforma in rau tot binele facut in ultimii ani. Ca sa nu lungesc prea mult, in decursul ultimelor 24 de ore am primit cel putin 8 Spam-uri la diferite domenii pe care le avem (multe nefolosite de prin 2002-2003) si la adrese de e-mail care au fost folosite doar cand un utilizator s-a inscris la un anumit serviciu oferit de noi.

Am vazut pe un blog romanesc acum cateva zile un site de antispam din Romania, ar fi excelent daca cineva m-ar anunta care este acest site. Sper ca acest eveniment este unic la ClubAfaceri si echipa lor se va abtine pe viitor de la aceste tactici.

We just introduced a new feature on our B2B Network. I believe we are quite innovative here, as far as I know, no big B2B and Import Export website offers something similar. The problem with many B2B sites is that they offer an Enquiry Cart feature and you can actually send hundreds of canned messages to virtually any member no matter how targeted or untargeted is the message. So, I sell mobile phones, let’s just send my message to hundreds of other members no matter if they are dealing in agricultural products or chemicals. In my opinion, this is equivalent with spamming and in my opinion it is actually decreasing the response ratio. Members get saturated with unrelated offers and requests and soon quit.

Anyway, what we introduced is the so called AutoContact feature. We match Top Member sellwords with other member buywords and send a warm invitation to possible buyer in the name of the Top Member to review the Top Member’s Profile, Trade Leads and Products. It is a 100% targeted advertising, our initial testings shows that we can increase a lot the responses received by Top Members. I won’t tell you exact increase percentages, it is not relevant yet but I believe the increase will be significant.

So, actually, we do the job instead of Top Members, we invite in their name -using some personalized messages- relevant members to visit their Top Member profile. We save them time and money.

If you check my about page you will notice that I am running a free dating website: OneLoveNet.com. Well… it is quite new but already having lots of members and the traffic is growing day after day.

Well… I compared my site with some other dating sites. The strange thing I noticed that on many sites, the homepage contains photos with singles who look like fotomodels… Come on, is this the real life? Who do you try to fool? “Register now and meet this beautiful girl from…” or “Join now and chat online with Nicole… she is waiting for you.” The photos are usually professional photos that were made in a studio by the respective dating site… Come on, most of these profiles are fake profiles. Do you really think that a fotomodel will use a dating site to meet a guy??? To meet you??? Give me a break…

OK, let’s suppose they are real woman not just fake profiles, what are your chances of dating with them? There will be hundreds if not thousands of man who will want to date with her… Will you be the one?

Real life and real dating is different. It doesn’t matter how you look or how professional is your photo, there has to be a spiritual connection between you and the one you want to date. At OneLoveNet.com, you can meet real singles locally with real photos who do not look like a fotomodel. We do not select good looking profiles to our homepage and we do not post fotomodel pictures to our site. Most of our singles are simple with a real life, trying to find the one. But, one of them can definitely become your fotomodel.

So, you probably know that there are hundreds and thousands of web directories and submitting your website to the right directories will help a lot your SEO. Unfortunately, there are many dead directories that are still live but apparently does not accept new websites. All they want is your backlink or they are not updated any more. I find it extremely bothering when I do not even receive a reject email for a directory submission.

So, I decided that I compile my blacklist of directories, again these directories might have a PR, but you do not get anything if you submit your site(s)…

Here are a few:

• Sphericom
• Oast
• Domaining.in
• Zorkk
• DotRig.com
• Submission4U

I have tried to add links to these directories and although placed a reciprocal link on the submitted sites, never heard from them after submission. More links will come later. If you know about web directories that seem to be dead or have some really bad practices (no response, not even a rejection email), please share it here.

And yes… I have not mentioned DMOZ in the list. We all know the story of DMOZ.

There is another bad practice: your listing is accepted but after a week or month your link can not be found. Here is an example: KingBloom.com.

If you see your directory above and have something to comment, you are also welcome.

Today, I will share with you how do we use our B2B environment to promote registered companies and their related products and trade leads. I will focus on Top Member promotion, because in every networking environment, paying members get more benefits than free members. This does not mean that free members can not get good results using our network, but obviously paying members are getting more responses.

So, how do we promote your products?

1. Top Member Companies, Trade Leads and Products are ranked higher in our databases.
2. Top Members with an active membership can post more products and more trade leads.
3. We promote by email Top Member Products to matching members.
Example:
You sell sugar and add your product to our database. A new “sugar” buyer joins our B2B Network. This sugar buyer will look for “sugar” trade leads and “sugar” products on our database and obviously he will see your offer and product on top positions and most probably an RFQ (request for quote) or buying request will be generated and sent to you.
Wait, this is not all! We also promote your “sugar” products to ALL “sugar” buyers by email periodically, so you can expect a constant flow of RFQs by e-mail! These emails are actually right on target because we send your products and pictures to members who are interested in your offer. So, a mobile phone buyer will never receive your sugar offer and vice versa.
4. Buy & Sell Alerts are sent out daily or weekly (based on member preference) to members who opted to receive these alerts. They are designed to keep members up-to-date with what is happening on their industry: sellers of products receive constant notifications with new buyers, buyers of products receive constant notifications with new sellers + links to trade leads posted on member’s industry. Obviously, Top Members have priority here as well, so your chances of being found by a potential buyer or seller are much higher.
5. Top Members can contact more members than free members.
6. We promote your memberwebsite mywebsite.bloombiz.com through our B2B Network.
7. You receive up to 25% discount on Targeted Trade Offer when you decide to send a mass offer or request to matching buyers or sellers.
8. Top Member Products and Companies are also appearing on the right column of some of our partner sites on certain site sections whenever a match between a searched word and a Top Member Product or Top Member sell or buyword exist.

Actually, I have to admit that many of these targeted promotion tactics were only introduced in the last 10-12 months but it increased Top Member response ratio by almost 90%!

And, just another personal opinion. Often, our members simply pay the membership fee and expect miracles. Let me tell you clear and in a public environment. A Top Membership worth nothing if you:

- do not have a company description

- do not provide sell and buy words

- do not add at least one trade lead and one product.

This will only generate you a number of totally unrelated requests and offers because other members will not know what you are selling or buying! So, please do not waste your money in becoming a Top Member if you have nothing to sell or buy.

But, if you invest some time in following my advices, our network can become a valuable resource for your import export needs.

Join our European Business Marketplace if you are not a member yet and benefit from our import export marketing. And, as an addon, you still benefit from our 3 times more credits promotion by the end of February. If you are already a member, please login on the partner site where you signed up or through our general partner site: Market at TradeHolding.com.

I see a new pagerank update especially on some of my new sites:

• www.unitedwebsite.com/zoltan/, my personal blog has a PR3
• TradeHolding.org now has a PR4 (launched in September 2006)
• OneLoveNet.com now has a PR5 (launched in December 2006)
• Kugli.com now has a PR4 (although it is not launched yet, just promoted via a few links)

I see changes on new sites, but no changes on old sites. Also, none of the bigger search engine forums mention anything about a PR update. So, what am I seeing? An update or not?