Yet MORE Cool Tools that are Also FREE!

Courtesy of Robin Nobles, Search Engine Optimization Expert! As a Thank You for allowing me to reprint the "Cool Tools" article, here are some of Robin's premier products:

1. Choose to study online from home at OnlineWebTraining.com, which offers both beginning and advanced courses that are updated every month.

2. Choose to study in person at a 2, 3, or 5 day hands-on Search Engine Workshop. Grab your laptop and discover how to perform optimization the stress-free way at these in-depth, on-location workshops.Click Here.

3. Choose to learn by networking! The World Resource Center is an online networking community for search engine marketers . . . the only one of its kind. Members can access over 900 pages of a comprehensive resource library, chat sessions, strategy forums, SEO jobs database, and much more.Click Here

Yet MORE Cool Tools that are also Free!

By Robin Nobles

Several months ago, I published an article on cool tools that are also free. We all enjoy discovering free resources that genuinely merit some value, don't we?

Thanks to everyone who wrote and sent me your own cool tools. We'll keep publishing articles as long as you keep sending me your own ideas! We'll combine and categorize them into one very helpful list.

Here's Part 2 of our Cool Tools that are also Free. You'll find Part 1 here:

Cool Tools that are also Free (Part 2)!

Link Reputation Tool

http://198.68.180.60/cgi-bin/link-reputation-tool.cgi

We know the importance of link popularity (the number and quality of inbound links pointing to our Web site). Equally important is link reputation - what those inbound links say about our Web site. In other words, link reputation is what is written in the link text, or the clickable text, pointing to our Web site. With this free link reputation tool, you can learn what other sites are saying about your Web site.

Trojan Scanner

http://info-x.co.uk/netools/netools.asp

Wow. This tool really brings back “fond” memories when I had my very own Trojan horse clomping around inside my computer system. (A word of advice: please get a firewall!)

The Trojan Scanner at Information Exchange scans your system for 85 known Trojans. You'll hold your breath as it runs its scan, or at least I did. You'll also find a WhoIs Lookup, a Server Check, and other cool tools.

Quality Assurance ToolBox at the W3C Consortium

http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/

The W3C offers a suite of validators that you can use, such as a W3C markup validator, a CSS validator, an XML validator, a log validator, and some that I've never heard of!

As you know, it's important to be in compliance with W3C standards, and these tools and validators will help you to accomplish just that.

FreeWebSubmission Site Ranking Tool

http://www.freewebsubmission.com/site-ranking.html

Plug in your URL and your keyword phrase, and you'll quickly learn your rankings across 12 major search engines in a minute or two. Pretty slick!

SnapFiles

http://www.webattack.com/

Free software (freeware) galore! This is a computer addict's paradise. Enjoy!

Dynamic Drive

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/

Dynamic Drive offers original dynamic scripts (DHTML) and a JavaScript code library, including calendars, mouseover images, DHTML games, scrollers, etc.

Logo Generator

http://www.coolarchive.com/logogen.cfm

Not a Web or graphics designer (like me)? This site has some cool tools just for you. Another one is a button maker.

DNS Report

http://www.dnsreport.com/

Many domains have DNS problems. This handy site will help you find those problems and fix them by providing a DNS report for your domain.

Everything You Want to Know about a URL (and I DO mean EVERYTHING)

http://www.faganfinder.com/urlinfo/

URLinfo is a “tool for handling Web pages,” and it includes 107 tools that you can use to dig for information on a URL. You'll be there for hours, so grab a sandwich and a cup of coffee and get ready! There are more nooks and crannies to this site than you can possibly imagine.

What is my IP Address?

http://www.whatismyipaddress.com/

Doesn't take much explanation on this one, does it? If you ever need to know your IP address, this neat little online tool will answer the question for you.

Free Wordtracker Magic Audio Tutorial

http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles/audiomagic.html

Sign up for John Alexander's audio tutorial offering tips for doing keyword research using Wordtracker. Two audio tips are sent out by e-mail once a week, and they're approximately 2-3 minutes in length.

These tips are worth their weight in gold as they open your creative mind to researching keywords.

Search Engine Relationship Chart

http://www.bruceclay.com/searchenginerelationshipchart.htm

By far, the best chart to show the relationships between the search engines and directories is Bruce Clay's. He does a tremendous job of keeping it up to date, and you can even download a copy as a PDF.

Again, thanks to all of you who shared these “cool tools” with me. Be sure and send me YOUR list, and I'll add them to the next article. Thanks so much!

Robin Nobles teaches 2-, 3-, and 5-day hands-on search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe as well as online courses in SEO. They have opened the first networking community for SEOs called The World Resource Center for Search Engine Marketers, and they have expanded their workshops to Europe with Search Engine Workshops UK.

Copyright 2004 Robin Nobles. All rights reserved.

Click here to go to the index of search engine

marketing articles

Christmas Poem

I liked this poem from Randy Gage (published in his Randy's Rants ezine so much I'm reproducing it in its entirety here.

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Randy's Rants
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T’was the night before Christmas, and I’ve just got to say;
What the Hell is going on, in our culture today?

What happened to manners, since when is it proper;
To take your cell phone, to church and the Opera?
And if you think that is the height of it all;
Look at those idiots dialing from the stall!

We have drugs to treat AIDS, so no one must die;
Unless you’re in Africa, with no cash to buy.
No money for schools, it’s for the defense giants;
Provided of course, they are Dick Cheney clients.

What was Ohio thinking, to do such a thing;
This dim-witted cowboy, re-elected as king?
And no one thought to ask our governing powers;
Wasn’t it bin Laden who blew up the Towers?

Hussein’s capture, it distracted the nation
That WMD was total fabrication
But free prescription promises, clouded the fact;
We had no real business, invading Iraq.

The mortars were stacked, by the mosque walls with care,
To kill our GI’s, who soon would be there.
Our guys and our gals have a no-win situation
Facing roadside bombs, ambush, and awful mutilation

Security alerts rise, to ominous heights;
So you won’t notice, the gutted Bill of Rights.
Now don’t get me wrong, I support our brave fighting force;
But I don’t want them dead, in some ‘Nam refresher course.

And over in the Middle East, what could they be thinking;
40 days of mourning Arafat, what the Hell are they drinking?
He stole from his people, blew up school kids with no remorse;
So now in the Arab world, he’s a big hero of course.

But who cares about situations like that, we can’t disparage;
With more important things to do, like preventing fag marriage.
Grab a beer and some chips and sit down in the chair;
And watch all the reality shows certain to air.

Kick back in the recliner, tune into the box;
For “Housewives,” “Survivor,” and anything on FOX.
Sit there transfixed, slamming mug after mug;
Hoping to catch someone, eating a bug.

Whatever happened to peace on earth, goodwill for all;
Do we forget it to fight, for parking at the mall?
Please take a minute to reflect on what is right;
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

-RG

http://www.randygage.com/

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SixDifferentWays: Flushing the ARP Cache on Windows XP

Have you had this problem? You're doing a bunch of work on the 'Net. You take care of some other business and come back to your computer an hour or two later.

You cannot access any web sites. They all say "xxx.com cannot be found" or similar frustrating message. You check your Internet connection. All systems are go. You can IM a buddy. But you can't surf the web.

You try different browswers. Firefox, IE, Mozilla, even Opera don't work. You can occasionally get lucky trying something different. Sometimes you manage to figure out how to attempt a repair. You're hopes are up . . . and then dashed again when you receive this message:

Windows Could not finish repairing the problem because the following operation could not be completed: Clearing the ARP cache. For assistance, contact the person who manages your network.

Network? What network? I don't have my home computers networked, what the heck is Windows talking about?

After living with this near-daily annoyance, I finally found the solution, courtesy of SixDifferentWays, a groovy blog that I couldn't stop reading--and I've got work to do! Click this link for the answer:

SixDifferentWays: Flushing the ARP Cache on Windows XP

Excel Bankruptcy; Shaklee Welcomes Former Excel Independent Representatives

Nice summary of the Excel bankruptcy by Paul Nicholson: Downline - 19th November 2004 - Vartec & Excel Bankrupt - Paul Nicholson

Excel Independent Representatives can join Shaklee with their downline organizations intact. See the Shaklee site for details.

Tomboy Tools: Women Only, Tool & Home Improvement Direct Sales Company

The link above takes you to today's Press Release:

Tomboy Tools, Inc., an all female-based tool and home improvement direct selling company headquartered in Denver, Colorado, recently announced their membership with the Direct Selling Association(DSA).

Until I saw that PR today I had never heard of Tomboy Tools. What a great idea for a party plan network marketing company!

If you don't know at least one woman who is a whiz at home repair and using power tools, then she is probably being nice so that she doesn't embarrass you (yes, I'm talking to the other men out there ;o).

I've requested more information about the company's compensation plan and the details about becoming a Trainer (distributor). Their web site could use updating because while it is well-designed, it's short on details.

I'll probably be adding Tomboy Tools to the New MLM page on my Best-Mlm-Opportunities site. This is a new page for "up-and-coming" direct sales companies.

If you have experience with Tomboy Tools as a customer, Trainer, or otherwise, please add your Comments. Thank you.

Excellent Free E-Books & Audio Presentations

If you are looking for quality educational material on Internet marketing, MLM, personal growth, etc., there are some excellent free resources available.

For example, SiteSell offers several free e-books and "Masters Courses" on Internet marketing. Sure, they are designed to promote SiteSell products but they are also very well-written and informative in and of themselves.

Note: If you visit the SiteSell free ebook page, you'll need to scroll down to "ACTION #2" for the free ebooks. The top of the page (ACTION #1) contain links to the paid full versions of the ebooks, which are great, but I'd recommend starting with the freebies before deciding to purchase a full version.

John Milton Fogg's GreatestNetworker web site also offers a number of free e-books and audios on network marketing, personal growth, business principles, prosperity, etc.

Mark Worthen
Save up to 45% on #1 Rated USANA Vitamins

TheCashSecrets.com: High-Priced, Questionable

A distributor for TheCashSecrets.com issued a press release today. I like to occasionally check out MLM and related companies I have not heard about, in case they should be listed on my Best-MLM-Opportunities web site.

Unfortunately, more often than not I find high-priced business opportunities selling products of questionable value. Such is the case for TheCashSecrets.com. Their product consists of dozens of ebooks and online audios covering topics from starting a business, marketing, self-improvement, parenting, etc. The cost? A mere $1295.

I try to keep an open mind about most things but I find it hard to believe that any collection of such material is worth one thousand two hundred and ninty five dollars. If you are a distributor for TheCashSecrets.com, please Comment below and prove me wrong, if you can.

The company also offers you your own web site. While most network marketing companies offer replicated web sites for free, you must pay $297 per year for the privilege of owning a replicated CashSecrets web site.

I reckon the CashSecrets folks would say, "Yes, but our distributors make $1,000 per sale, after the first two sales, which more than makes up for the cost of the web sites."

One thousand dollars per sale does sound tempting and I bet it does lure in a lot of distributors. But think about it. If the online education program costs the consumer $1295 and you receive $1000 as a distributor, how much is the online education program really worth? $295?

The company could market their educational package themselves for a lot less than $1000 per sale. Consequently, one must ask, "Why do they pay a 77% commission?"

Here's my guess: They make their money by selling the business opportunity (surprise!). You see, in order to qualify as a Director and earn the $1,000 per sale commission, you must first purchase the educational package yourself and sell two more packages. If you do not buy the package yourself, you must sell four packages to become a Director.

Since the average distributor in an MLM or related company does not make more than two sales, especially with a very high-priced, low-demand product such as this one, the company has it made! Most of their distributors probably make only one sale--to themselves. If they make one or two more sales, the company still pockets 100% of the money.

In addition, CashSecrets also charges new associates a $99 distributor fee, $297 for a replicated web site, and $19.95 per month for an online video presentation (+ $29.95 set-up fee for one version).

At least the company is honest when they say it costs about $2,000 to get started. But they are not so honest when they make claims like these:

"The Power Profit System eliminates the two biggest challenges that one has when faced with starting a home-based business. Number one, it does 90% of the selling for the user. It presents the product and opportunity to an interested prospect, so the distributor does not have to do it." [From the press release]

"Now you can discover the closely guarded secrets to Quickly and Easily Generate $3,000 to $7,000 every week -- Virtually Guaranteed!" [From the web site]

I did not see anything on the CashSecrets web site that spells out their "virtual guarantee." If you know a former CashSecrets distributor who has received a full refund or some other compensation because they did not make at least $3,000 per week, please tell me and I'll publish the information here. (I'm not holding my breath).

The claim that the distributor doesn't have to do 90% of the work is galling since they are taking advantage of the naive visitor's misunderstanding of the #1 Internet marketing reality: The most well-designed web site in the world is useless unless it attracts a lot of traffic.

At least once a visitor ventures inside the CashSecrets web site, CashSecrets tells the prospect the real deal: Plan on investing $100 to $500 per month on advertising.

Having fallen a "get rich quick" program myself, I know how tempting "make $1,000 per sale" can be. These days, I always ask myself, "Would I buy the product if it wasn't associated with a business opportunity?" and "How will I feel about other people purchasing the product and/or business opportunity through me? Will I feel I am genuinely helping them achieve success or simply making a buck off them?"

Plus, I don't purchase anything without thinking about it for at least 24 hours. Most sales copy contains psychological triggers designed to encourage impulse buying. One of the best ways to resist those techniques is to promise yourself to not buy until you have had time to reflect on the value of the purchase.

Mark Worthen
Integrity-To-Wealth.com

Best Review of Link Building Tools

For those of you familiar with Dr. Ralph Wilson, you won't be surprised to learn (if you don't know already) that he has recently written the most thorough and objective review of link building tools available.

When other web sites link to you it not only improves your search engine positioning, the links also become a major source of direct referrals.

But what is the most efficient, cost-effective way to increase the number of links to your site? Dr. Wilson answers that question in this comprehensive report, simply titled, "Reciprocal Linking Tools."

Here's Dr. Wilson's summary of what the report contains:

"This report explains the functions of various types of reciprocal link management software, divides them into three types, and provides reviews and recommendations on best-of-breed software. It includes brief reviews on Zeus, Arelis, LinksManager, Links4Trade, Hot Links SQL, Linking101 Link Management Script, LinkManager Lite and Pro, Duncan Carver's Link Management Assistant, and PowerLinks. Four of these packages win the 'Web Marketing Today Editor's Choice Award' for excellence at a reasonable price."

My personal choice is Arelis but the best link building program for you will depend on the type of web site you own; your ability to install a CGI program in Perl or PHP; your ability to FTP to your web site; etc.

The good news is that Dr. Wilson breaks it all down in his review. He provides enough technical data for the tech pros and enough practical information for average web site builders to make a decision.

Reciprocal Linking Tools is available as a downloadable e-book for $8.95 or a printed book for $10.95. You can also receive it free, along with a number of other ebooks, when you subscribe to Dr. Wilson's highly regarded ezine, Web Marketing Today, Premium Edition. I'm in my third year as a Web Marketing Today, Premium Edition subscriber and I consider it one of the best investments I've made.

Not only are the articles comprehensive, honest, and well-written but Premium Edition subscribers gain access to hundreds of articles and resources on Dr. Wilson's site. Whenever I want to know the ungarnished truth about a product or service, I first go to Dr. Wilson's site to see if he has reviewed it.

I know I can trust him because I have never been disappointed with products or services he has recommended.

Dr. Mark Worthen
http://Worthen.Usana.com
http://www.Best-Mlm-Opportunities.com