1. Ensure Your Domains Have Accurate WHOIS records

Sounds simple but you wouldn’t believe how many domain registrations have been made using the wrong details. Too often the domain vendor would slip their own details into the owner or administrative details. The person who dealt with the “internet” would register company domains with their personal email then move onto a new job a few months later.

Incorrect records can cause a nightmare when you come to update or transfer the domain in the future. The owner/admin email holder can transfer the domain away.

Ensure that your details and email are on the administrative and owner contact fields of the domain. Running a WHOIS check will help but the contact email addresses can only be seen through the private panels of your domain provider.

2. Make Sure You Own Your Domains Legally

It may come as a surprise but WHOIS records are not proof of domain name ownership. Make sure you have access to the account with the domain registrar and have printed off invoice receipts for your registration.

3. Setup Your Own Domain Expiry Reminders

Don’t put all your trust in your domain provider. They may drop the ball or fail to contact you for the renewal. Registries have little sympathy once you have lost your domain, nor does the domain speculator who snapped it up.

Setup expiry reminders on your chosen calender application, use a birthday reminder service like HipCal or a dedicated domain tool like URLPad. Make sure you have reminders on 2 different email accounts, in case one fails.

4. Backup Your Sites – Regularly!

Again many rely 100% on their hosts for this. For WordPress sites you can backup the whole blog or just the database on regular periods and send it to a newly created Gmail account. Cpanel, Plesk and other control panel systems usually provide backup facilities for your whole site – use them. Software like SyncBackSE (Windows) or Filezilla (Windows, Mac and Linux) will help you maintain a synchronized copy of your files on your local computer.

Make sure you keep a few copies of your backup. An external Icy Box and a few old hard disks is an effective & low cost solution.

5. Invest In Decent DNS

Too many low grade hosts have their name servers placed on the same box as their hosted sites. If the server goes down, so do the name servers which can result in many hours of downtime, even after the server itself has come back online. That downtime is expensive for your business.

For a small fee you can buy a high quality DNS service or you may find the DNS at your registrar is sufficient. These name servers should update very fast across the internet, be backed up and have a fallover system.

This move will give your sites some security against long periods of downtime. In situations where your host has failed completely you can also switch the traffic to another provider.

6. Own Your RSS Feeds

Service at Feedburner has been rocky in recent months. Alternative services such as FeedBlitz and PostRank are waiting in the wings. Other services may come in the future. The lesson here is to make sure your RSS feed is delivered on a URL you control. That will let you change providers without loosing valuable subscribers.

Make sure you use a service which lets you create a CNAME record to point their branded URL towards your domain. Both FeedBurner and FeedBlitz allow you to use your own domain name.

7. Buy Your Vanity and Brand Domains

It makes sense to grab the COM/ORG/INFO/NET versions of your company domain name and any key brands you have developed. If you have plans internationally then also grab these extensions in your target countries. Domain registration fees are nothing compared to the legal fees you run up reclaiming these.

On a personal level, register your name domain (firstname+surname.com). Keyword domains have a natural advantage in ranking for these terms – ensure they are under your control.

8. Start Filling Your Vanity or Brand Results

Defend against online reputation attacks by filling these SERPs with your own entries. These results will defend you against low level ORM attacks and targeted link building can make them even more powerful.

Finding good sites for this is not hard, look for authority sites where you can place your profile. Here’s a couple of good site lists to start your efforts.

9. Control Your Short URLs

The recent death of the Zi.ma service was a wake up call for everyone using a shortening URLs service. If the service fails, then all those links fail, leaving you with no way to redirect that lost traffic. If you using short links in link building efforts or for affiliate marketing then you need to roll your own solution.

These are many URL shortening scripts on the market, for a small fee GentleSource ($29), PlusPHP Short URL Script ($59) or for free, e.g. Shorty

10. Use Your Own Domains For Email

Defensible email means using your own domain rather than a branded service. If you use Gmail then use your own domain name with them or sign up to Google Apps. Yahoo Mail and Microsoft Live Mail also offer services using your own domain.

Like your RSS feeds, this approach would allow you to switch providers without loosing your email address.

11. Keep Your Content On Your Own Domains

Always build content on your own domains, otherwise you’re at the mercy of the service provider. They may offer to export your data but that often means loosing links, traffic and historical trust that you’ve built up over the years.

So roll your own blog installation rather than using a hosted blog solution like WordPress.com or Blogger. Also keep it in mind when using third party sites like Squidoo, Google Knol or Twitter. These sites are useful but never forget that this material is most strongly defended on your own domains.

12. Set Up Malware Alerts

If Google, Firefox or IE flags your site as containing malware they will stop their users viewing your site. This can be as devastating as a hosting failure. The sooner you know about this the better.

Make sure you get early alerts on Google’s blacklist from Google Webmaster Center or SerpGuard.com. You can also set up Google Alerts for known malware keywords, as detailed here by Patrick Altoft.

** Hurricane Ike Prep by Cayobo one of the artists who make their work under a Creative Commons license at Flickr – thank you!

1. Non Disclosure Contract (NDA)

An NDA is an essential tool for a search marketer, or anyone in a consultancy role. This contract creates a confidential relationship between two parties and prevents either side discussing sensitive information to third parties. This obviously comes in handy when quoting on a project but I have also used an NDA with industry peers when asking for advice. You can read more on NDAs here.

2. Presentation Backgrounds

Giving talks and presentations are an essential part of marketing yourself or your company in the search world. It may not be SMX, SES or PubCon but sooner or later your going to find yourself knee-deep in PowerPoint. Larger client contracts often require you to make a presentation to their team.

3. Company Newsletters

These templates can give you or your client the push they need to start email marketing to their customer base. Not only is the R.O.I. higher when marketing to existing clients but as Garrett French writes email marketing can form part of your linking strategy.

4. Basic Google Adwords Proposal

Google’s released two templates to help you with their Adwords system. This one is a basic proposal document for a new Adwords client. You can show trends to clients, sample keywords/creative and give estimated costs for the campaign.

5. Adwords Creative Generator

This template will help you create adverts for your Adwords campaigns. I’m not well versed in PPC but it looks like the aim of this sheet is to auto-generate advert headlines based on your Ad Groups. It will mix custom terms with Ad Group keywords and highlight adverts that exceed the character limit. Once you have finished here, you paste into Adwords Editor or a bulksheet.

6. Travel Expenses and Itinerary Templates

Going to conferences is an essential part of the search industry. It’s a great way to get a beer pick up clients. These templates can help you keep track of your travel details and expenses. Having them on Google Docs is perfect when you’re on the move.

7. Video Christmas Template

It’s depressing to think about Christmas already but for many of us involved in e-commerce the planning starts soon. Assemble your mailing list and send out this card at the start of the season, with a reminder of the month’s best deals.

The template wording needs tweaking but it comes in 5 colours and the embedded video is an interesting angle. Alternatively use it for your own marketing clients or just to give your designer some inspiration.

Technorati Tags: Adwords Templates, Google, Google Adwords, Google Docs, NDA, Powerpoint Templates, templates

The Pareto principle states that 80% of effects stem from 20% of causes. It was named by Juran after Vilfredo Pareto, a 19th century Italian economist who noted that 20% of the population held 80% of the wealth. Juran used this in his work to explain how 80% of production errors were made by 20% of the workers but he expanding this principle to many other business areas.

I was introduced to the principle by my accountant. He explained to me that 80% of my income as a business was coming from 20% of my clients. I’d never thought about it in that way before. I soon learned to spend more attention on that 20%!

The value of the rule is that focuses your attention on the 20% that matters. Each day at work, 20% of our daily activities will bring 80% of our results. Identify and focus on those things, as attention to them will produce the largest effect in your business. When your back is against the wall and time is running low, remind yourself of the 20%. If something gets pushed down the to-do list, you better make sure it’s not a 20% activity.

OK, I hear you. Enough theory, lets have some practical examples of this. Here are some areas I think about in relation to the 20-80 rule.

• Domain Portfolios. 20% of your domain portfolio will bring 80% of your income. Actually the ratio is more extreme that this but the principle is the same. Know which domains are your top earners and spend time optimising the advert matching and landing page structure. Keep these successful domains or niches in mind when making new purchases.
• Software submission. 20% or less of the sites will bring in 80% of your traffic. Use PromoSoft to submit your PAD files to 850 software sites but deal with the highest traffic sites by hand. Make sure you are using all the features they are offering you, your time is well spent improving your listing here.
• Customer Care. Identify the top customers and reward them. For e-commerce sites, think about a reward scheme or gift voucher. These people make the big purchases or repeat-buys, look after them!
• Affiliate Marketing. 20% of your sites will be bringing in the bulk of your money. If you have outstanding jobs or tasks that will make these better, get them actioned now! Hours spent here will bring in the greatest rewards.
• Advertising. Make sure you know which publishers are bringing in the most conversions for you. Refine the adverts for the users of those sites and increase your monthly spend with them.
• Optimising Sites. When you first take on a site, you can find hundreds of errors and issues that are preventing conversions. Try to work out what issues are in the key 20% group and immediately prioritise them.

It’s important not to get too stuck on 80-20 as a figure. It can as easily be 95-5 or 70-30. The concept remains the same. You’re identifying what is important and focusing there to achieve the greatest effect. Consider your work and business and how this principle can be applied. If you want to share some thoughts below, feel free!

Technorati Tags: 80-20, Business, Joseph Juran, Pareto Principle