Category: Website Design And Development

By Madonna Jeffries

As you can quite imagine the rapid advancement of technology has certainly opened up a lot of new opportunities for people wherever they may be in the world. As a great example of the growth of the internet and the world wide web we see many top American colleges and universities opening up their courses to American as well as foreign students who wish to study online. Today, many of these colleges and universities are offering accredited online college degree courses to students located in all corners of the world as far away as Asia and Australia.

It is not just a simple matter of signing up for these courses. Students are required to go through the usual application and student selection processes so as to be eligible to enroll in their accredited online college degree courses. Nevertheless, the fact that a student (no matter where they live) can study in the comfort of his or her home is already a huge advantage and draw card for many Universities offering highly respected and in-demand courses. This ‘online’ option is possibly the only one available for many students who are unable to fund the cost of relocating to the United States from abroad so they can study at a particular College or University.

Eligibility for Student Grants and Assistance

If you are accepted into an accredited online college degree at an American College or University then you may be eligible to apply for study grants and other financial assistance. Just because you are studying online does not mean that you are not considered to be a legitimate student of the College or University and accordingly you should investigate to determine what study grants and student financial assistance is available to you. As most colleges and universities have an ‘online application’ process for student grants and financial assistance you do not need to attend the campus to apply for support under these student assistance programs.

If you are enrolled in an accredited online college degree program the amount of financial assistance that you might be entitled to may differ from the assistance given to students who are studying on campus. In most situations an online student may only get a small fraction of the financial assistance that is given to students who are studying on campus.

The principal reason behind the reduced the amount of assistance that you can obtain as an online student is that as you are not living and studying on campus, and as a result you are likely to incur lesser costs and expenses compared to those students that are participating on campus.

Notwithstanding this differential in study grants and related financial support, the good news is that you would still be entitled to participate in any student loan program and would enjoy the same rate of interest and payment schemes as those students who are living and studying on campus. So if you are interested in an accredited online college degree offered by one of America’s most prestigious Colleges or Universities why not go online and apply for a position now.

About the Author: For further details about accredited online college degrees, online Universities and distance learning visit Online College Degree Resource.

Source: isnare.com

Permanent Link: isnare.com/?aid=224742&ca=Education

By Loretta Wright

After word got out that dear old Google is either ignoring or giving fewer points in that mystical concoction called Google’s algorithm, website owners like you are probably receiving a substantial number of 3 way link exchange offers. X offers to add a link to Y’s site in exchange for a link to X’s site in your link directory, usually with a short sales pitch proclaiming this 3 way link exchange to be the perfect method to get those all important one way links Google rates so highly. On the surface, it seems like a wonderful deal. You provide X with a link on your website, and you get a link on Y’s website in exchange-so you and dear old X both get a one way link and a couple of points added to your Google algorithm right?.

Trouble is, it seldom works that way. A great many of these 3 way link offers we receive are actually not worth the time and effort it takes to set X’s link up in our directory. In fact, a large number of webmasters create a simple web design and host it on a free hosting provider to use as a “catch-all” for link exchanges. Here are three steps you can use to help you determine whether your 3 way link offer is a deal or a dud.

Step 1. Before you accept their offer, check out Y’s site. Are all the links listed on the link page related to your site contents? If the answer is no, then I suggest you politely decline the offer. If the answer is yes proceed with step two.

Step 2. Right click on the page and select view source. Is there a meta description and meta keywords included in the head of the page. Are the description and keywords appropriate for the contents of the page?

While many SEO experts suggest that most search engines no longer use meta tags, it’s been my experience that a few search engines will not even accept a submission of your site for indexing without meta tags. Keep in mind, that your SEO efforts should take the requirements of all major SE’s into account. While we all long for that magic top ten on Google for our keywords, getting that top ten spot on other search engines will substantially increase your website traffic. Whether Google places any relevance on meta tags in the ranking algorithms is anyone’s guess, however, after personally conducting a test using the same web page design with and without meta tags in the head, I can assure you Google definitely relies on meta tags for placement of Adsense advertisements. In my opinion, the lack of meta tags on a link page (especially if that page contains Ads by Google, is a sure sign that the webmaster is either unaware of the importance of using those nifty little tags, or could care less whether that page is indexed by the search engines or not. There are always exceptions to every rule however, so if the description and meta tags are missing, I suggest you follow step 3 before you make a decision.

Step 3. If you haven’t already done so, install Google’s toolbar (a link to the download is available on Google’s site). One of the great perks of Google’s toolbar is that it provides the PR of the page you are viewing. Whenever possible, try to place your links on pages with a minimum PR of 2/10. Although I have accepted offers for a link on pages with a lower ranking if it passed the tests in Step 1 and Step 2, this is a good rule of thumb. Most SEO experts agree that the higher the PR, which is an indicator of the importance Google places upon upon the page, the more value for your link.

Keep in mind, if X places your link on a page filled with unrelated links to other websites, and the description and keyword meta tags are either missing or not related to your site’s content, and Google gives the page a ranking of 0/10, that’s precisely what your link on that page is going to be worth in Google’s algorithm–Zero.

About the Author: Loretta Wright is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing at

topcat-hosting.com

– Topcat Hosting where she also takes full advantage of the low cost hosting plans for the eight websites she personally owns.

Source:

isnare.com

Permanent Link:

isnare.com/?aid=180693&ca=Marketing