In this month’s issue we cover:

LunarNews August 2008

An Interview with Marc Sylvester

SEO Tips: Step Five of Ten – Link Building with Debra Mastaler

Lunarpages Launches 3 New Plans

Old School Affiliate Marketing

Creating Email Accounts with LPQuickSite

Joomla (the Manual Install) – Wiki Preview

Create a FTP Account using cPanel – Wiki Preview

Must Have WordPress Plugins

Enjoy!

Thanks for making this past year so great! Now, onto LunarNews for August 2008:

Lunarpages WordPress Design Contest Series 3

Yep, it’s back, and it’s better than ever! So far we have over 50 amazing free WordPress Themes, and all of them are just gorgeous! Enter your WordPress Theme today for your chance to win $1,000 and 5 years free web hosting, along with a bunch of other prizes! So far, the weekly round winners are (and all are available for download!):

Pop Star by n252

MyBlog by n252

Styleicious by ThaSlayer

Check out the Lunarpages Blog for more information on contestants, weekly winners, and to download all of the outstanding Free WordPress Theme submissions!

NEW PLANS: Domains & Emails, Oh My!

Here at Lunarpages, we’ve had a ton of customers asking why we don’t have just a domain registration or email hosting plan, so now we do! Check them out, because these affordable domain hosting and email hosting plans are the affordable and simple way to manage your domain names and host email with Lunarpages. For more details on these cool new plans, check out our featured article: Lunarpages Three New Plans.

July 2008 Website of the Month

July’s Website of the Month was a shocking surprise! TWO winners were chosen due to the tie in voting, but I think both websites definitely deserved to win. So a hearty congratulations goes to Beyond Football, an awesome website devoted to all things ‘soccer’, and Extra PC, a very cool PC Game based website. Both sites are definiitely worth checking out for their cool designs and fluid website building. If you’d like to vote on our website of the month contest or toss your own site in, please visit our Website of the Month Forums and have fun!

About two years ago, as I was searching online for graphic and logo design companies, I stumbled across a nice ‘little’ site called TheLogoCreator.com. I had been looking at logo design companies, individual designer sites, and template generators all day, but this site was different. A refreshing change from the normal (and somewhat boring!) world of logo templates, I instantly sent these guys an email and the owner, Marc Sylvester, got back to me and we immediately began talking and trading information.

Recently, two of Marc’s logo design sets from the Logo Creator were added to our $775 Free Bonus offer, and he agreed to sit down for an interview to talk about hosting with Lunarpages, his experiences in Logo Design, and his efforts in all things graphic!

Thanks for taking the time to chat with us, Marc! As you know, I’m a huge fan of your logo design software, but for those who haven’t yet given it a shot yet, please tell us a bit about TheLogoCreator.

First off, let me say that I’m honored to be interviewed by such a great company. Lunar Pages is terrific. I highly recommend them to everybody I talk to (including members of my forum).

The Logo Creator is a software product I first created back in 1999. In a nuttshell, The Logo Creator helps to create logos for your business. You’re presented with professionally designed logo templates that you can mix, match and modify.
Since its launch in the fall of 2000, Its gone through some nice enhancments and is now up to version 5. I’ve also since come out with various logo “Packs” – themed editions (sports, corporate, cartoon etc…) containing more logos and logo elements that you can add to your collection.

The Logo Creator has been very successfull for me and I continue to update and enhance it.

TheLogoCreator is a branch of your main business, LaughingBird Software. How did you come up with that name?

LOL. I get asked that question quite a bit. Way back in the day, (the dial-up modem days of the early 90′s) I was working for a company who went belly up. I was let go and decided I no longer wanted to work for anybody but myself. I knew the only way to fly was to start my own business.

One night, while trying to think up a name for my company – a little mocking bird was outside my window. Have you ever heard a mocking bird sing? It sounds like laughter.

… at first, the mocking bird was driving me nutts (they don’t stop laughing). Finally, it was SO bad, it became funny. I began to laugh. And I began to doodle a little ‘laughing bird’ on some paper. Then it hit me that the name of the company was going to be “Laughingbird Productions”.

The original idea of Laughingbird was to create a tropical look and feel to my company; “Sit back, relax, or take a vacation while I do the work for you”. It’s a positive name and makes people smile. The Laughingbird became my symbol and it’s been with me ever since.

Speaking of names, do you have one for your cute parrot mascot?

lol. Nope. He’s just my little Laughing bird.

What makes TheLogoCreator different than all the other logo design software out there?

It was the first of its kind. It’s got the best logos, it’s the easiest logo design product out there …and the forum (The Logo Design Forum) now has over 15,000 members. No other Logo Design software product (and actually, no other logo design company if I think about it) has such a large active forum. Am I bragging? Yup.

What are the differences or benefits in your nearly 10 different Logo Design packs?

Each themed Edition comes with its own logo library of themed logos, and hundreds of logo elements. Each set can be run on its own (no need to have any other version of The Logo Creator installed) but can also be added to any collection you currently have.

How long have you been hosting with Lunarpages and how has the experience been?

Ah. Lunarpages has been a HUGE part of my business. The tools, tech support and pricing that Lunarpages provides are hands down the best.

I’ve been through so many other hosting services I’ve lost track. Each and every one of them has caused me grief in some way. Downtime, lack of features, too expensive for what they provided … that sort of thing.

I went out Googling for a new company one day and found some great reviews for Lunarpages. I then went onto some forums and heard many others talking (very highly) of Lunarpages. So I made the jump and have been incredibly happy every since. Going on 3 years now.

You offer two logo design sets free to all Lunarpages customers, which is so nice! Can you tell us a bit about this awesome offer?

I know I sound like a commercial, but I’ve been so happy with Lunarpages, I wanted to give something back. I’m offering The Entertainment Edition and The Sports Edition of The Logo Creator for all members (new and old) of the Lunarpages family. This has been a win/win for everybody. Lunarpages gets a nice promotion, the customer gets free software, and I get branding and recognition to a large base of people that don’t know much about my company. It’s been a huge success and I’d do it again in a heartbeat

What do you think is the hardest thing about designing your own logo?

Great question. Yes, designing your own logo is always the toughest. You get so tied up with its creation, you can’t see the trees for the forest (is that the correct analogy?). Should the logo be a symbol? Should it be all text based? What the heck are my colors?

This is the very reason I created The Logo Creator. TLC gives you this ‘jump off’ point. Allows you to start off with something great, and make it even better.

business card creator

What are your future plans for your software?

Since launching TLC in the fall of 2000, I’ve come out with many new products. The Business Card Creator, The Web Graphics Creator (web page graphics like page headers, splash page images and eBook covers…), and the Flash Ad Creator (animated banner ads).

I’m soon to launch The Animated Logo Creator and The Blog Theme Creator (create different skins for your WordPress blogs).

That’s so exciting! We can’t wait to see the new products. So what did you do before logo design?

I was a camp counselor for years. This experience taught me how to work with kids. Soon after college, I began teaching cartooning to kids ages 5 to 12. This gave me ‘teaching’ experience. One of my past life jobs was to teach adults who were laid off from their jobs a new occupation. I taught Multimedia programming to them using a tool from Macromedia called “Director”. Director is a cousin to Flash.

How important do you think a logo is for any small or large business?

Huge! It’s the first thing a potential customer sees about you. It sets the look, feel and tone of your entire company. If it’s a slap-shod logo, this is what a potential client will think of you.

Do you offer any tips to new designers on the best ways to design a professional logo for their business or website?

Yes, my forum is full of great tips and advice on getting a new logo created. The software also contains tips and tricks in the tutorials and help files.

Okay, now let’s have some fun! Would you rather…go skydiving or skinny-dipping?

LOL. Skinny dipping. Hands down. Never skinny-sky-diving. (wouldn’t THAT be a sight! … look! Up in the sky!…)

Eat an entire box of chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookies?

Raisin Cookies!

Take the scenic route or just get from point A to point B?

Always the scenic route. Its a way of life.

Type an email or call someone on the phone?

eMail.

Order pizza or Chinese?

This one’s a toss up. Chinese Pizza?

What do you do when no one is looking?

Eat raisin cookies and Chinese food.

If you could have any superpower, what would it be and why?

Awesome question. I’d turn invisible. Then, nobody would ever see me eat raisin cookies or Chinese food.

Great answers, Marc! Thanks for taking the time to answer all these questions!

Thanks for taking the time to ask! Again, Lunarpages is one of my favorite companies. I truly value it.

Thanks again to Marc! Feel free to check out his amazing products or sign up for Lunarpages Hosting to get two free logo design sets courtesy of Mr. Logo Creator himself! If you’d like more information on this offer, check out Lunarpages Free Bonus.

Welcome to part five in this ten part SEO series. The ten parts of the SEO process we will be covering are:

1. Keyword Research & Selection
2. Competitor Analysis
3. Site Structure
4. Content Optimization
5. Link Building
6. Social Media
7. PPC
8. Statistics Analysis
9. Conversion Optimization
10. Keeping It Up

Note: Part five is a reprint of a Semmy winning article written by Debra Mastaler on link building. It is of course reprinter with permission.

Help! I’m New, I Need Links, What Can I Do?

I took a telephone call last week from a woman who was looking to hire a link builder for a new site in a very competitive niche. I’m under contract to a business in the same industry so I passed but we had a nice chat before I sent her along with my standard list of link building referrals.

Several days went by and I heard from her again, this time in a state of panic. Seems everyone she contacted was unavailable, and she was convinced it was because her industry was a competitive one. Could I please give her an honest assessment of her website and tell her if that was indeed the case?

Well, no. I feel for her situation but in this particular field I’m under contract to a competitor and as a result, obligated to focus only on them. But I did refer her to a usability specialist and suggested her situation is probably more a result of link builders being taken rather than uninterested.

Competitive industries tend to be established industries so it stands to reason they have linking staffs in place and link builders tied up. If that’s the case, what can new sites in a competitive niche do to attract links?

To begin, do all the “foundational” link building every other site starts out doing before branching into the more indepth promotional linking:

• Apply to the Yahoo! directory (cost – moderate)
• Submit to solid directories such as Joe Ant, GoGuides, BOTW, Ezilon, Rubberstamped and Massive Links. (cost -moderate)
• Join a Chamber, your industry Association, and clubs. (cost – low to moderate)
• Issue a press release announcing the new site (cost – low)
• Buy a list of high-profile journalists and contact directly for one-on-one interviews (cost -moderate)
• Backlink your competitors and those ranking ahead of you for link and advertising leads. (free)
• Develop a “how to” video for your site and it’s products. Submit to the video and HowTo sites (cost – low)
• Buy ad space in offline publications annoucing your new site (cost -moderate to high)
• Find an established business in a complementary industry to host a co-promotion or buy their mailing list to send out link incentives. (cost – low)
• Find out who’s podcasting in your niche and buy space, offer to be a guest or donate products to be given away in exchange for either of the above. Look for high visibility podcasts to advertise in, sweeten the deal with incentives. (cost – free to low)
• Locate the prominent bloggers in your niche and start adding to the industry by commenting on their views. Don’t be obnoxious and don’t do it everyday. Join their community and they’ll join yours. (cost – free)
• Be sure to incorporate an incentive-to-link program in all your external correspondence such as autoresponders, confirmation emails, reminders etc. (cost free)
• Create a corporate blog and invite bloggers, journalists, and your customers to contribute. Continually promote the site and it’s writers and in turn, they’ll support your site by linking to it. Don’t forget to add an RSS feed as well. (cost free to low)
• Be sure to add the blog to all the blog directories as well as the RSS feeds to RSS directories. (Cost – free)

I could go on but you get the picture. While most of these tactics have a small to moderate cost associated with them, others are free. Not only will you gain links but you’ll also gain the much-needed influx of traffic competitive sites need to break into the race.

Other link building resourses:

Link building is a HUGE area. The articles that appears as the runners-up for the SEMMY are also well-worth the read. They are:

• Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and Social Media Marketing
• Revealing your Competitor’s FULL External Relevance Profile – One of my best kept secrets

Based in Williamsburg Virginia, Debra Mastaler is President of Alliance-Link, an interactive marketing company focused on providing custom link building campaigns and link training since 2000.

So the big excitement here at Lunarpages this month was the introduction of three new web hosting plans for our customers! But the interesting news about these plans is…they’re not exactly web hosting.

Let me explain – we now simply offer a Domain Registration plan and two Email Hosting plans! The domain plan is for those of you who have been asking us, “I just need to register a domain but I don’t want to host anything yet”. We really disliked having to say you couldn’t do that and to come back when you were ready to host, so now you can purchase your domain through Lunarpages for $9.95/year. Plus, feel free to add Anonymous Domain Registration, park an unlimited number of domains, update or edit your Name Servers to point to any hosting account in the world, or even upgrade to one of our affordable hosting options at any time.

For more information, please visit Domain.Lunarpages.com.

As for our email plans, you’ll be happy to know we’ve thought of both types of email users – those who only need one professional email address and those who need anywhere from a handful to hundreds.

For just one email address, choose our Mini-Mail Plan, at $1/month. You get 100MB of storage (which can be increased) and you can register a domain with us for $9.95/year or use your pre-registered domain.

For those who need Unlimited addresses, choose Mega-Mail for $2/month. You get 1GB (1,000MB) storage space, unlimited email accounts, unlimited email forwarding and auto responders, and more.

Both email plans come with Spam scanning and protection, webmail, support for POP/SMTP/IMAP, and compatibility with all the most popular email programs, like Outlook/Express, Thunderbird, Eudora, and Netscape. And of course you get our award-winning 24/7 support to boot!

Let us know your thoughts, as we’re very proud to be able to bring you these new additions!

Affiliate marketing is either the best or worst thing, depending on who you talk to. Personally, I love it, and that’s not just because I manage the Affiliate Program here at Lunarpages, although that’s as good a reason as any! I like affiliate marketing because it allows for faithful word-of-mouth, old-school type referrals. Though affiliate marketing gets a bad reputation at times, if you are marketing a company successfully, you can run a really lucrative business.

With that said, here are five quick tips to make your affiliate marketing a success!

1. Create Need

Odds are, you are going to be competing with thousands of others (or more) in your given niche, so in order to be successful you must stand out in your market. I work in the web hosting business, which is about as competitive as it gets, and yet there are numerous ways to make a simple Top 10 Web Hosting site stand out.

To think of these ways, you should first analyze your competition. What are all the other Top 10 Web Hosting sites doing? Once you figure that out, don’t repeat their mistake! It might be effective for a time, but if you don’t have natural Google rank or can’t afford to advertise to compete directly with these guys, you need something that will stand out and turn heads. Just like writing a good advertisement will bring more customers your way, creating an intense desire for your product above the rest is what will get you big bucks in the affiliate sphere.

2. Landing Pages Are Important

So many affiliates don’t realize the importance of a good landing page, but consumers do, so you better jump on that bandwagon ASAP. Landing pages, if you’re unfamiliar with the term, are just uniquely designed pages hosted off your main website that are designed with your campaign in mind. So if you have a Top 10 Web Hosting site and you are advertising in Google for “Lunarpages Web Hosting”, you’d better have a landing page that talks about the value of going with Lunarpages and not some other company you work with.

Landing pages should be targeted to the campaign you’re running but also conscious of the customer experience. For example, I wouldn’t want to land on a page that just said “OMG Lunarpages is so awesome! Buy now!” because it doesn’t tell me why I should buy or what Lunarpages is or does. Really sell your product, make the page stand out, and always, always, always include a link back to your homepage so they can view the rest of your offers as well. That way, they won’t be tempted to click Back and go visit someone else.

3. Proofread Before You Launch

Does that sound silly? You’d be surprised how many affiliates don’t take this rule to heart!

By proofreading, I mean really get down to check each and every link, read and re-read and re-read again all the text on your website, ensure accuracy with the information you’re providing, and make sure your website makes sense. I always recommend emailing the Affiliate Program Manager on staff at the company you’re marketing to ask their opinion. They want to sell the product as much as you do, so they should be able to tell you what works and what doesn’t. Better to know now than when you’ve already spent $500 in Google advertisement.

4. Think Outside Google

Hopefully the Google police won’t send someone out for me for saying this, but there are other avenues that can be just as lucrative as Google for affiliate marketing. The rule of thumb for this tip is if you are joining a competitive niche like web hosting, online gambling, ring tones, etc, try starting out in Yahoo, MSN, or even through using tools like the ones we offer free to all customers, such as LinkWorth and BidVertiser. Your cost will be lower and in most cases your conversions will be higher. However, if your niche isn’t as competitive, your keywords won’t be as expensive, so going with Google is still your best bet.

5. Communicate

Your Affiliate Manager is there for a reason – to help you make the most of your affiliate marketing. So take full advantage if there is an email, telephone number, or contact form where you can reach your manager. Ask them questions, give them examples of what you plan to do, and ask for their feedback. The best kind of affiliate relationships are the ones that bring income for both the affiliate and the company, so remember that as you email them. They want you to succeed and sell their products just as much as you do, and if you do well, you’ll likely be handsomely rewarded for your efforts.

Do you guys have any cool affiliate marketing techniques you can recommend? If so, please share!