Image you write an article and the sub directory is http://www.mydomain.com/category/article/

Well, you and other website might try linking to it in the following ways

http://mydomain.com/category/article/
http://www.mydomain.com/category/article/index.html
http://www.mydomain.com/category/article
http://mydomain.com/category/article

I recently discovered, due to googles webmaster tools, that all these different variations are actually very unique paths and many times can cause your visitors to end up on 404 error pages. I figured this out because I decided to check up on the reports in webmaster tools and I saw a little section that showed me all the pages that were resolving on 404 error pages.

After a quick glance of the 404 pages I realized, all these articles and pages did exist and that external websites were just linking to my pages incorrectly. I did some research and found out how to not only universalize my url system but a way to also fix other webmasters mistakes without having to knock on doors and asking them all to fix their links.

The answer is all in the htaccess file which uses methods like mod_rewrite and the rewriterule and rewritecondition statements. This is by far no tutoral on htaccess or mod_rewrite but just my finds of near little tricks of code that helped me universalize my urls internally and externally so visitors are never sent to 404 error pages

First up make sure you have the following turned on otherwise these neat little tricks will not work

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On

Fixing Links with a missing www

Now lets say for example you want to ensure that www is always used in your url string, whether or not you or other webmasters remember to use it while linking to an article or page. Add the following lines to ensure your www naming convention always remains the same.

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^mydomain\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1 [R=301,L]

Now I have noticed some other people use this same code but with HTTP_HOST instead of THE_REQUEST. Like I said I am no expert on this subject. but I have learned that if you use the HTTP_HOST version the url will only fix itself when linking to the home page and not sub pages. If you want your subpages to fix themselves as well then use the THE_REQUEST version

now if anyone types in

yourdomain.com
yourdomain.com/article1

they domain will always end up at

www.yourdomain.com
www.yourdomain.com/article1

Remove Trailing File Names

Lets say for example you use a CMS such as wordpress or drupal and you use the permalink option. If you write an article and permalinks makes the destination url www.mydomain.com/article1/ and you want to prevent accidental linling of trialing file names such as

www.mydomain.com/article1/index.html
www.mydomain.com/article1/index.php

Then try adding this code

RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \/index.php\ HTTP [NC]
RewriteRule (.*)index.php$ /$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} \/index.html\ HTTP [NC]
RewriteRule (.*)index.html$ /$1 [R=301,L]

This will remove the trailing file name on the url and redirect the visitor back to the original naming convention

Ensure Trialing Slashes on your url

How about if someone linked to that same article again, but this time forgot the last / sending their traffic to

www.mydomain.com/article1

instead of

www.mydomain.com/article1/

Try adding this code to put the forward slash back onto the end of the url string

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !(.*)/$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.mydomain.com/$1/ [R=301,L]

A special note about this code is that its going to make sure the directory /article doesnt really exist and if it does it will not put the trailing slash on the end of the url. Also, if someone does try to access a directory that does exist it will give them a forbidden access page. This will protect all the sub files in any directories that do exist and are accidentally linked to.

Well Lets give all these are try now

This articles url is

http://www.robdogg.com/wordpress/2008/10/16/my-3-htaccess-mod-rewrite-rewriterule-rewritecondition-tricks-and-tips/

Lets mess with it a bit

Lets forget the www
http://robdogg.com/wordpress/2008/10/16/my-3-htaccess-…ricks-and-tipsmy-3-htaccess-mod-rewrite-rewriterule-rewritecondition-tricks-and-tips/

How about droping the trailing slash and forgetting the www
http://robdogg.com/wordpress/2008/10/16/my-3-htaccess-mod-rewrite-rewriterule-rewritecondition-tricks-and-tips

How about forgetting the www and adding index.html to the end of the url
http://robdogg.com/wordpress/2008/10/16/my-3-htaccess-mod-rewrite-rewriterule-rewritecondition-tricks-and-tips/index.html

all these variations should all end up on my new universal naming convention

http://www.robdogg.com/wordpress/2008/10/16/my-3-htaccess-mod-rewrite-rewriterule-rewritecondition-tricks-and-tips/

Well I hope if any of you are having any of my issues that this helps resolve some of them

I was out with a friend of mine the other day and we were having a conversation about relationships and marriages. We have both been married and have realized that marriages are highly over rated. It seems that marriages these days are just societal pressures of conformity. Why does a piece of paper that says you’re recognized as married under the state of whatever mean so much? To save on auto insurance and get a little discount on taxes? If two people enjoy each other’s company as friends and as sexual partners then why get married and ruin a good thing? If you do get married why does everything change all of a sudden? I came up with the idea that there are certain expectations and assumptions that go along with friendship, relationships and marriage.

Expectations

Expectations are things we expect to happen and when they don’t we get upset or angry. To me expectations are more like agreements because I cannot expect something to happen without first planning what I expect to happen with the other person. If I do not plan what I want to happen then it becomes an assumption on my part. If I expect to meet my girlfriend at 8pm for dinner, it’s because we both agreed to meet somewhere and eat, but if my girlfriend never shows up, I will probably become upset, worried and angry, especially if there is no warning.

Assumptions

Assumptions are things I hope will happen without me having to ask for it or plan for it. Assumptions are not like agreements because they are not verbally acknowledged by the other person you are making assumptions about. Assuming leads to disappointment, confusion, and frustration because people cannot read each other’s minds and assuming something out of someone will always end bad. I think this is where many relationships, friendships and especially marriages go wrong. If I am married and I assume she will do all the cleaning then it will only lead to disappointment when I come home and the house is a mess. This is when the argument comes and usually sounds something like..

MAN: “why is the house such a mess”?
WOMAN: “Because I was out with my friends today and just got back home”
MAN: “Well I expected the house to be clean when I came home, its game night! And with whom and why were you out with your friends all day?”

Then the fight starts, people yell and things are said that probably shouldn’t have been said. But the issue was that the man confused an expectation with an assumption. Now had he said before he went to work…

MAN: “Hun… Its game night and I’ll be home around 6pm, can you make sure the house is clean so we don’t look like slobs?”
WOMAN: “Sure hun… I’ll do it before I go out with the girls”

Now the man has an agreement and can correctly expect the house to be clean when he gets home and avoid a nasty argument. I am sure in many situations this scenario can still go wrong, but that is probably due to many months or years of expectations and assumptions. If we all started making more agreements instead of assumptions and expectations then many of us will probably have much better friendships, relationships and marriages.

Marriages

Marriages are tricky because many unspoken expectations and assumptions are presented from both the man and the woman. There is a long laundry list of them which I probably do not need to mention, but the fact that you probably expect and assume things from your partner at this very moment, which has never been mutually agreed upon, probably does exist. I make mistakes in relationships all the time and I am learning something new each and every day, but as for the other day, this is my lesson learned.

If you have no expectation and assumptions then you cannot become disappointed, upset or angry. Only when you want something out of someone is the only time you can get hurt. I think it is vitally important to make agreements, such as loyalty, duties and roles within a relationship or marriage. Never assume someone is just going to do something, just because or due to societal expectations of your relationship.

Social Pressure

Social relationship pressures come from everywhere such as friends, family, and religion. The problem is trying to live up to their expectations and assumptions. Why do we do that to ourselves? It is a mystery in itself, but in this day and age a valuable lesson is being learned and that is to be yourself and allow others to be themselves. When you are in a marriage or relationship, take it for what’s it is worth and don’t assume or expect anything out of your partner, make agreements and understand one another. Don’t ruin a friendship with a relationship and don’t ruin a relationship with a marriage.

I am not saying to never get married, but I am saying not to marry someone for what they might become one day or for how they might change now that they are locked into a marriage. This will only lead to disappointment, confusion, and anger.

Originally this blog was created to test my ability at social media, internet networking and SEO (search engine optimization) The popularity I recieved from my how to videos has led me to leave the marketing firm I was with and start freelancing. So I am now a freelance internet marketing manager handling adwords campaigns for affiliates, businesses, arbitragers and others. I learned a lot, especially about social media, and I am sure I still have lots to learn, but I no longer need to focus on it anymore since it is not a work requirement.

Lets look forward to a great second half of the year…

I know everyone has been looking forward to some new tutorials on Google AdWords, but I recently quit smoking, and unfortunately I developed what is called “The Quitters Flu”. I didn’t know this would happen when I decided to commit to quitting for good. All I can say is that I feel sick, and I have never felt so sick in my life. I would probably never have felt this way if I just kept smoking, but I know smoking is bad and is something that should be done.

I have been smoking almost half my life. I stated when I was 14 and now I am 27. I figure, smoking for almost 50% of your entire life as to do something to you permanently. At the very least you become dependant on it. Before I decided to quit smoking I could have never pictured myself a day without a smoke.

I had a discussion the other day with a buddy of mine, and he explained to me that I work so hard at mastering my life, hence my blog motto, How To Rule The World. He said, you are mastering everything around you, but you are not mastering yourself. Why do it, just to throw it all away due to an illness or the inevitable effects of smoking.

So therefore, I QUIT and the hard way too, Cold Turkey.

I was good for the first 24 hours, then around 48 hours in I began to feel sick with flu like symptoms. I thought I was coming down with something, but honestly, I have not had the flu since I was probably 8 years old. I have a rock solid immune system. I can be in a room full of people with the flu and walk out of there never getting sick. So I knew something was wrong. I started researching the effects of quitting and came across a few articles that mentioned the quitter’s flu. By my 72^nd hour of not smoking all I could do is lay in bed. It reminded me of that scene in the Johnny Cash film Walk The Line, where Johnny Cash was locked in his room until he is sober. I was curled up in a ball, I broke out into a cold sweat and couldn’t sleep a wink. I felt like ripping my skin off and my bones and muscles were so sore all I could do is lay there and wish it would all stop.

Well, I am feeling better, but now I have developed this insane cough. All I do is cough all the time. I just wish something would come out. I cough so hard I want to puke, but normally I don’t. I cough at random moments, in the middle of talking, eating, driving, and even while I am sleeping. Last night alone I must have woken myself up at least once every hour to cough about 100 times into my pillow. I just coughed after finishing that last sentence…

Lastly I seem to be loosing my voice now… I can’t speak and half the time I feel like I’m yelling just to say a word. Then while I am trying to say something so hard, I end up squealing like I’m hitting puberty. It’s all really annoying, if you ask me. I hope I get over this fast.

Anyway, since all I do is cough all day long and can’t speak, I basically can’t make a video until this all ends. So for now, I will provide some other insights and thoughts via the good old text written article method.

For those of you who are interested, here are my QUIT SMOKING stats

Time Since Last Cigarette | Amount Saved Since Quitting

In this video I go over how to cluster your adgroup keywords for maximum efficiency. I have recently reviewed several Google Adwords accounts from online forum members that are having problems, and I noticed that many people are grouping their keywords improperly. Many are just bunching up large grouping of keywords into one large adgroup and thinking everything is going to be OK. This method is highly inefficient and will result in much higher average CPC prices.

I decided to pick out a random industry and show the process of keyword research, which is finding keywords related to a specific industry. I then show an extraction method on how to get those keywords off the internet and into your Google Adwords account. I go into detail on how to use excel to extract properly clustered keyword groupings and then how to upload those keywords into your Adwords account using Google Adwords Editor.

Please leave your comments, questions and suggestions.

Thanks everybody!

Many people have been managing their Google Adwords campaign portfolios the old hard way. Using the web interface to manage a Google campaign is very slow and time consuming. I decided to do a little Adwords editor beginners guide for you so that you can see how easy it is to setup and manage your campaigns with this software.

The video tutorial is a little over 15 minutes long, but if you have no knowledge of Google Adwords editor then this tutorial will explain a lot. This is only a guide to the basics and I will go into more advanced stuff in the near future. If you have any questions on anything that is done in this video please let me know. Post a comment or drop me an email at tutorials@robdogg.com

I have received a lot of questions about how Google Adwords works, so I put together this video on the basics of an account and campaign settings. The video is a little long, running about 23 minutes, but the information is well worth watching. I will post some more videos in the near future with more in depth details and explanations, but this video covers some of the basics. I mostly cover the campaign settings and the overview screens in a Google account so you can get the idea of where everything is at.

Here is are some main points of interest

Account Summary Page
Campaign Overview Page
Campaign Settings
Campaign Budgeting
Ad Scheduling
Ad Rotation Settings
Search Network Settings
Content Network Settings
Language Settings
Geo Targeting

Now that I am getting the hang of this Camtasia studio software, I will start including many more videos and how to videos for the Google Adwords system. Next up I will go into detail and explain the Google Adwords Editor program and explain where everything is at.

I hope you find this information useful and helpful. If you have any questions please send them on over to me, or post a comment. I will also try to incorporate your questions in my upcoming training videos.

Most internet searching is primarily done for research and education, in this process of the buying phase the conversion ratio is extremely low, therefore we want to ensure a good balance of exposure in the research phase, and with the sales purchasing phase.

Example, assume we were looking for a new bike tire. You go to Google and search for “bike tire”. You visit some sites but then you realize that is too broad of a search, so you search for “BMX tire”. After looking at some sites you find that you want a “Michelin Mambo BMX” Tire, so you search for that, find the tire you wanted at a good price and make the purchase.

That entire string of searches was used in the research and purchasing phase for a new bike tire. You want exposure at all levels, since level 1 and level 2 of the research phase is mostly branding, market exposure and familiarity. Once the internet user has gone through this phase of research, they will make the commitment to make a purchase on a highly defined and targeted keyword. If you allowed yourself the right amount of exposure, you may very well have familiarized yourself with the user so much, that when the purchase is made, it’s done from your site on the final keyword search phase.

Take into account this will make some keywords look like they are highly profitable, with a high click through ratio and conversion ratio, making you want to eliminate those broader terms and just focus on those long tails. An even balance of all keywords and a commutative cost per acquisition will help keep this in line.

When choosing your portfolio of keywords also remember to try and think as those that are searching for something on the internet. What is the relationship between keyword and product? If you sold antivirus software, would you use the keyword virus in your keyword portfolio? What about using the keyword, computer protection, or internet security? Is there a relationship between keyword and product? How about including the keyword computer or internet? Remember Google rewards for relevancy.

Thinking outside the box can be very challenging because we know and understand our product in depth and many times we become simple minded or single sided. We know what it does, and what it doesn’t do. The problem is that we don’t really know how others will perceive your product and how they will associate it with what they are attempting to search for.

In the next articles, I will explain how to develop your keyword portfolios, how to do keyword research, how to estimate bids, and how to predict the volume of searches done per month for your keywords.

Adgroup Name – I like to name my adgroups based on structuring from the previous article. Internet Marketing Google Adgroups Logical Setup Strategies. Then I like to add the match type to the end of the name so I know what is contained. Example: “Ipod Touch – Exact” and “Ipod Touch – Broad”.

Status – The adgroup status can only has 3 options, Active, Deleted and Paused. Since this is self explanatory I won’t go any further

Max CPC Bid – This field is where you set you default CPC bid. I always set it to $0.10. This is because I do all bidding at the keyword level. Since I most likely will have anywhere from 2 keywords – 1,000 keywords within an adgroup, the one pricing fits all does not work. I set it to $0.10 just in case I forget to bid on one of the keywords within the adgroup, if this happens it will default to a very low and safe bid.

Maximum CPC Content Bid – I am not sure why this option was even created, but it was placed there to separate content bids from search bids. Best practices tells us that we should separate content completely from search and place it within it’s own campaign, so in my scenario’s I will never have to separate search and content bids. Also when content is separated within it own campaign, the Maximum CPC Bid can be used, thus eliminating the need for Maximum CPC Content Bids.

When you are all done, you should have something that looks like this

Product Grouping – This type of Ad grouping is based around the product keywords. In this method you plan on creating ads that specifically target one product. This will allow you to create highly targeted creative that could include specific product pricing and promotional messaging.

Service Grouping – This type of Ad grouping is based around the specific services your company or products offer. Promotional messaging would include how the grouping of keywords solve or fix a specific problem.

One To One Grouping – Some high volume keywords may require complete separation due to volume of impressions and clicks. When this happens you want to make sure that keyword performs at its best. Singling it out to its own adgroup is called one to one. Now you can make sure no other keywords affect it’s performance, and you can really target its messaging and controlled multivariate testing to increase performance.

Call To Action Grouping – this type of ad grouping is specifically targeting to keywords that contain a call to action. Buy, Sell, Purchase, Download, and etc are call to actions. You’re telling your visitor to do something, and many times they are searching for the call to action, meaning they are ready to do what you want them to.

Promotional Grouping – this type of ad grouping is targeted to some sort of discounted promotional messaging. Cheap, discounted, wholesale, liquidation and etc are all promotional messages. The visitor wants something for less or a greatly discounted price.

This covers the most commons ways to setup your adgroups. Adgrouping is not rocket science, but it helps to be prepared, and set things up logically in advance. It will help create more highly targeted promotional messaging, and allow for greater control for optimization.

I will pick a product that draws my attention on shopping.com and give you some examples of keyword adgrouping

And the product is…

The Apple Ipod Touch

Now let’s write out a few examples to get a clearer perspective.

Product Grouping

apple touch
apple ipod touch
ipod touch
apple 8 gig touch
apple ipod 8 gig touch
ipod 8 gig touch

Service Grouping

apple touch mp3
apple ipod touch mp3
ipod touch mp3
apple 8 gig touch mp3
apple ipod 8 gig touch mp3
ipod 8 gig touch mp3
apple touch mp3 player
apple ipod touch mp3 player
ipod touch mp3 player
apple 8 gig touch mp3 player
apple ipod 8 gig touch mp3 player
ipod 8 gig touch mp3 player
apple touch music player
apple ipod touch music player
ipod touch music player
apple 8 gig touch music player
apple ipod 8 gig touch music player
ipod 8 gig touch music player

Call To Action Grouping

buy apple touch
buy apple ipod touch
buy ipod touch
buy apple 8 gig touch
buy apple ipod 8 gig touch
buy ipod 8 gig touch
purchase apple touch
purchase apple ipod touch
purchase ipod touch
purchase apple 8 gig touch
purchase apple ipod 8 gig touch
purchase ipod 8 gig touch
sell apple touch
sell apple ipod touch
sell ipod touch
sell apple 8 gig touch
sell apple ipod 8 gig touch
sell ipod 8 gig touch

Promotional Grouping

sale apple touch
discount apple touch
cheap apple touch
sale apple ipod touch
discount apple ipod touch
cheap apple ipod touch
sale ipod touch
discount ipod touch
cheap ipod touch
sale apple 8 gig touch
discount apple 8 gig touch
cheap apple 8 gig touch
sale apple ipod 8 gig touch
discount apple ipod 8 gig touch
cheap apple ipod 8 gig touch
sale ipod 8 gig touch
discount ipod 8 gig touch
cheap ipod 8 gig touch

As you might be able to see, since the keywords are in line with each other writing a highly targeted promotional message will be a lot easier, and Google will most likely give you a better quality score due to higher keyword and text ad relevance.

In my next article I will cover all the attributes of an adgroup, what they mean and how to use them like a pro.