Thanks for your feedback.
Numbers and answers corruspond to these questions.

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q52: It may be a problem; one solution could be to submit the updated page without the "www"; if you have submitted http://www.yourdomain.com/page1.html and after three weeks it has not been indexed, yet, but your page1.html has changed, in the meantime, you may resubmit it as http://yourdomain.com/page1.html However, if it is passed more than one month from the last submission, you can resubmit it without problems: it means that your old page, for some reason, has been dropped out.

q53: Infoseek, Altavista, Excite, most of all.

q54: Just the ranking of the first page, since the name of the page is relevant for high ranking and since a page ranking high for some keywords may not rank high (even if with the same layout) for different keywords.

q55: For each search engine may be guaranteed a top 10 positioning

q56: Absolutely, no.

q57: Yes, we give money back guarantee. Take a look at < http://www.pegasoweb.com/sepromo.html > Discount are only for big search engines promotion campaigns.

q58: c1: it doesn't matter that you submit also tents.htm to the free link sites.

c2: yes, of course

c3: absolutely no. In this way you would have 4 occurrences of the word "link". Make use, instead, of synonyms.

Pegasoweb http://www.pegasoweb.com webman@pegasoweb.com

Engenius v.1.0 http://www.pegasoweb.com/engenius/ engeniusinfo@pegasoweb.com

Email: Fabio Salvadori Pegasoweb http://www.pegasoweb.com webman@pegasoweb.com

Engenius v.1.0 http://www.pegasoweb.com/engenius/ engeniusinfo@pegasoweb.com

List: Yes

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q4: http://www.trafficcenter.com/dealers.cfm?id=hweber-3416
 
q5: http://www.wealthdynamics.com/classifieds

q10: The Trafficenter at http://www.trafficcenter.com/dealers.cfm?id=hweber-3416 gets
over 36 million hits a year!

q11: The classifieds site at http://www.wealthdynamics.com/classifieds  is totally free.
 
q30: The stats program comes with the Model Show Home at
http://www.trafficcenter.com/dealers.cfm?id=hweber-3416 .
 
q62: http://www.trafficcenter.com/dealers.cfm?id=hweber-3416 .

q64: Yes.

q65: No.

q66: Adgrafix. at http://www.adgrafix.com/info/bweber/sales.html
 
q67: GO there and review and take the test.
 
q72: None, I have never received good results from banner networks. I have always done better
with either free reciprocal banner exchanges or paid banner advertising.
 
Email: Butch Weber
Wealth Dynamics
Home-Base dot Com
http://www.home-base.com/
soon http://www.wealthdynamics.com
bweber@home-base.com
 
List: yes

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The following answers were in reply to  letters I received from someone very helpful. They relate to, but are not exactly the same as questions on the form. The questions are written above in black. More answers to the actual questions I have on the form are urgently needed.

Hi Rick,

I have just read an article by you where you mentioned tracking stats. Do you know of any free or cheap scripts      that give you the referral URL?
 
Here are two:
http://www.gumball-tracker.co.uk/
http://www.extreme-dm.com/tracking/

Are they suitable for tracking associate programs?

I guess you could use them that way, but you would have to do everything manually. That would become a major
headache if your associate program gets very big. There are better solutions that are reasonably priced.

GoldRush Tracking Systems is one that's reasonably priced:
http://www.getequipped.com/index.asp?id=2012
 
For scripts that have to be installed how much would this cost for you to install?

You don't need someone else to install the free tracking scripts. They provide easy to follow instructions that you can follow if you have full access to your site.

How long would it take the average web page designer to learn how to do it?
 
Minutes, to install the scripts. If you have to actually write them you would need to learn some programming. I am not a programmer.

What if I changed hosts. Would I have to reinstall it?

If you have the right host you can get all the information you need from their server logs. You would just need a program like WebTrends to organize the data.

I am starting an associate/affiliate/commission program and thought of an easy way to do it for a start. If I make several entry pages with a unique URL for each member, would Gumball tracking enable me to reliably determine who referred each buyer that filled out my order form? Would this be the easiest way?

That would work.

To install it, is it simply a matter of pasting the html code into my page without any other programming or software?

The only software you need is a text editor so you can paste the code they send you.

Gumball doesn't charge. Extreme Tracking charges.
You have to make a new account (for the Extreme tracker) for each page if you use the free option. The paid service looks very attractive  because it's very inexpensive for what you get.

I am trying Gumball and it looks ok apart from I am losing stats that were here yesterday on the browser. Do you ever have any problem with Gumball?
 
The only problem I had was with the server I was trying to set it up on. The server changed some of the code so it wouldn't work so I haven't been using it.

Also I get identical repeats. Is it reliable and accurate?

I can't vouch for it's reliability. I know that Extreme tracking has been both reliable and, apparently, accurate.

If I have a unique doorway page to link people to form an associate program, how reliable would tracking be?

It *should* be very reliable for people who use browsers that are Javer enabled.

Is there anything else I could do to improve it for this purpose?

I wouldn't use it for tracking associate sales. I would use one of the third party tracking systems or set up cgi scripts on the server my site is on.

Do you think my server could be causing these problems with Gumball?

If you don't see a Java error code it's working.

I thought it was independent of a server as it is just pasted on to my site. Is this correct?

It is. But my server changed some of the code, and I couldn't find a way to make it leave the code alone.

How much time and cost is involved to install the third party tracking systems?

The time is minimal with the systems I'm familiar with. The cost varies all over the map. Gold Rush, the one I sell, starts at $499 setup plus $1 per affiliate. You can find a link to them at the URL in my sig.

What percentage of people have Java enabled browsers?

According to my Extreme stats over 94% are Java enabled.

Does your software normally reliably track a URL followed by ?ID, even if the unique URL is entered from an email box, and the surfer only looks at the first page with the ?ID after the URL?

Take a look at this one:
http://www.affiliatezone.com/al_13/affiliates.cgi?34

The cost is much more appealing (about US$250) and it will do everything you need it to do.

GoldRush is apparently undergoing "restructuring" right now. I don't know what's going on with them right now so I'm going to stop recommending them..

Do additional logs of Gumball or your other software enable tracking the number of referrals of each unique URL so I can inform the members how  they are going?

Affiliate Zone does that and you don't have to do it manually.

Is this easy and inexpensive to set up. How much time and expense would be involved?
 
Time is minimal for Affiliate Zone. They can have you running in a few days.

Which software do you recommend me to get started on a shoestring budget?
 
I'd go with Affiliate Zone.

Would any inaccuracies and the non Java problems still occur with the other software? 

Affiliate Zone uses cookies to track sales. So, people who disable them or refuse cookies can't be tracked.

I looked at Extreme tracking but had trouble getting into some pages. From the ones I saw it read as though it was completely free and did track keywords in search engines. Is this correct?
 
They do track the search terms people use to find a page. But, if you have URLs with ? marks in them, most of the SEs won't index those pages.

Does it have a string of individual referrals and server numbers etc. in order like Gumballs in a text format?
 
It's not in a text format. You get your stats online, in real time.

Is it more reliable than Gumballs? Is it as easy to install as Gumballs?
 
Installation is the same for Extreme. I can't compare the reliability as I couldn't get Gumball to run on the site I wanted it on.

I am also keen to join your associate programs. Only thing is I have  trouble filling out forms due to my computer. I think I have joined most  of the ones linked to you; before I knew you had this list but if you have your own I probably will join it. I have one you are welcome to join. It could be the easiest associate or reseller program on the net to join. I have made it that way to  encourage people. Details are at http://www.advantagein.com/marketing.htm
 
Take a look at this site. It's still under construction but I have several 2- tier programs listed there. http://www.webclay.net/2tier

There are many different views on how to get a top rank and there is a  risk of being stopped for spamming. Do you think it would be a good idea to email the URL of the pages I intend listing to the people who run the search engines, to get their opinion on how to improve them to get a higher rank, and also make sure it is ok, and I am not doing the wrong thing by spamming or submitting too many similar pages?

There's only one way to get good positions on the SE. Learn all you can about the way they index sites and build pages for each of them. I don't know how much good it will do you to send them email. I bet most won't respond and the ones that do won't be willing to tell you much.

Which of the main engines apart from Yahoo and AltaVista don't allow
more than one page to be submitted or have a very low limit?

For AltaVista the limit is one per day. I limit my submissions to one URL from the same site per day.

Which engines if any don't allow all the meta tags such as comment tags?

All but Lycos use the Meta description tag for the description they display in search results. Only HotBot use the tags to actually effect the indexing they do.

Does it matter if the page text is centered?

Nope.

Where you said all but Lycos use the Meta description tag for the description they display in search results. Only HotBot use the tags to actually effect the indexing they do.
Does this mean Lycos will penalize or give me a lower rank if I include all the possible tags such as comment and description.

Nope. They ignore meta tags.

Do you know of any engines that would penalize or give me a lower rank if I include all the possible tags such as comment and description?

Infoseek *may* lower the relevance of keywords included in the description Meta tag. As far as I know, none will penalize the inclusion of the comment tag, but I don't think any index comments anymore.

What do you think of my page at http://www.advantagein.com/tents.htm Would it be ok to upload to all the engines?

The only way to tell for sure is to try it. I don't think you'll be penalized for anything I can see.

Would http://www.advantagein.com/hiking.htm be better?

Was that one generated by WebPosition Gold? The only real problem I see with it is that there are way too many keywords in the "Click here to see" link.

The only trouble with these, is I may get into trouble for spamming if I have too many identical pages submitted to the same search engines where only the keywords would be different. Would this cause a problem?

That *will* cause a problem in Infoseek and may be a problem in AltaVista. If you are using WebPosition Gold try
generating pages for the individual search engines instead of depending on one page for all of them. That's really the only way to get good positions for more than two or three.

I have seen some logs you mentioned cost only $5 per month. What is the advantage of paying $250? Is the $250 the cost for linking and installing the script on the server, or is it for the software itself?

Affiliate Zone is designed to track affiliate sales. Extreme is meant to be used to track Web statistics. The cost is for the software and installation on your server and it does most of the work for you.

Would the below matter, as I would not list with the search engines? I don't quite follow anyway as the ?1D comes after the .htm so I would not have a page with a question mark. It is only included for tracking for mail outs etc.

If you don't list them with the search engines it won't matter. The problem with long URLs in email is that some folks won't use all of the URL or they won't copy and paste it correctly.

I used Webposition Gold. As far as I am aware it cannot at the stage I did it, make different style of pages for each search engine. It only made one for the lot. Has that changed?
 
I generate a page for each search engine and give them different names. That way I can use the Traffic Analyzer to track visits even if the visitor doesn't have Java enabled and I can customize the pages for each search engine.

I didn't think long URLs matter in email as they would just click it. When could they matter?

In some email programs URLs that are wrapped don't work properly. You can click on them and only the first line of the URL is transferred to the browser.

Where you said:  The only real problem I see with it is that there are way too many keywords in the "Click here to see" link.
What about splitting the link up in two, so all the keywords would be in one part and the rest in another link to the same page?

The idea behind doorway pages is to focus on one or two search terms. Having so many in one link won't help you
achieve good positions for the extra terms.

All you really need is a tracker like Gumball to track each page and this should enable me to trace the way people move through my site. Is this correct?
 
Seems like  that could be a lot of work without a real stats program like Web Trends.

The only problem may be accuracy but I was hoping to get something for only about $5 a month or so to get started. What do you recommend?

Gumball and Extreme are the best free, or very inexpensive, stats systems I've seen.

Does WebPosition now tailor make each page different for each engine?

Not automatically. You have to customize the description and  generate a page for each search engine. Doing that totally by hand can take many hours. With WebPosition Gold you can do it in a couple of hours if you know what each SE is looking for.

I have checked the source of high ranking pages in the engines and they often have around 10-20 keywords. Why is this?

Different keywords? In my experience, trying to make a page rank well with bunches of keywords usually just doesn't work.
 
What do you think is the best number of keywords in each of the tags. At a guess from what I see it is roughly 15 in the keywords and about 4 in all the other tags although many would disagree. What do you think?
 
For Infoseek I don't even use the keyword META tag anymore. Lycos and Excite don't index it at all. HotBot and
AltaVista are the only ones that really use the keyword META tag. For most of the doorway pages I do I only use the search terms I optimize the pages for.

The ideal description META tag also varies by search engine. Lycos ignores META tags entirely. Excite uses the
description in their results but doesn't index it. Magellan, and WebCrawler are very similar to Excite. On Infoseek it's not a good idea to have your search terms in your description.

Does it matter if two different pages have the same 15 keywords but different primary keywords, where the primary keywords would be repeated in each tag and also form 4 of the 15 in the keyword tag?
 
You can try it but remember that keyword density is important. Adding too many other keywords will just decrease
that density.

It is a bit hard on my pages as I have a lot of links to all my pages on  the top so people can move around my site. Most of these links don't have  the relevant keywords for the page on them but I want people to see my  other pages. Then again the top ranking pages often have many words on  their page unrelated to their main keywords or focus. What do you think I could do to improve pages such as http://www.advantagein.com/tents.htm?

I would probably just create doorway pages for the search terms people use to search for sites like yours. Take a look at this page: http://www.synergy-marketing.com/search.html to find out what people actually search for.

At http://store.yahoo.com/ I could not see much info on the stats easily. There was a store set up cost for $100 per month. Would I have to do that to access the stats?  

Well, you have to look through the stats pretty closely, but it's all there. The best thing is that the associate program clients even though I have an associate program I get paid for that's almost as good.

I would be happy with Gumball if it worked without Java and was reliable. The format is ok and I could manage tracking associate  programs. Do any low cost scripts similar to Gumball work without Java?

I know there are some, but I'd have to search for them.

Is it difficult to install or have to be installed on to the server? or does it work simply like Gumball?

The Yahoo! store looks like it is a total solution. It would replace your current host.

Is it advisable to include all forms of keywords such as link, links, linked, linking?

Yes

For more information on search engine software and tracking contact "Rick Bier" <rbier@cyberhighway.net>
http://www.synergy-marketing.com/wpgold.htm 

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