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Coin Web sites
One of the positive things that people do here and in other online
discussion groups is share information. Web sites are good for that too, better in some ways in that the information is more easily accessible later, more permanent, and typically better linked to pictures. Web publishing is self-publishing. It's like writing a magazine article or even a book and putting it out there yourself for anybody to read. You won't make any money for your efforts, but you won't have anybody editing or rejecting your work either. There are lots of good sites put up by coin collectors. One of my favorites is John Carney's RCC Users Coin Image Gallery: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/jcarne...ns/rccers.html It's a way for people to show off their favorite coins and for others to get ideas on new collecting areas they may not have previously considered. Tom Buggey's The Most Beautiful Coins of Antiquity does this with ancient coins: http://www.people.memphis.edu/~tjbuggey/beaut.html Stu Miller's The Stujoe Collection has lots of good information from NGC about various coin series, coin grading challenges, and other useful stuff: http://www.thestujoecollection.com There are lots of other good collector sites too. The better ones share knowledge about coins rather than just showing off your own coins, to help others appreciate their coins. Putting together a Web site can take time, both in the putting up and in the responding to queries you get from visitors. In this way, Web publishing is much more interactive than traditional publishing, particularly if you get a lot of hits. But if you're interested in the subject matter, this is positive, not negative. I did a little exercise with Google, which does a good job of returning the most relevant and useful sites when people are searching for information on the Web (the reason Google owns the search market right now). With the coin sites I've put together, Google returns one of my sites as its first selection with the following search phrases: coin appreciation coin toning coin pocket pieces coin fraud counterfeit coins Draped Bust coins Bust coins Bust dollars Saint Gaudens double eagles Several other of my sites show up second or third in a Google search (when using the search phrases "first coins," "coin authentication," and so on). It's interesting that with some search phrases that have commercial connections, such as "coin grading" and "coin holders," the relevant sites I've put together don't even wind up on the first page of Google's results. For instance, with "coin grading" it's the individual coin grading services that dominate, and with "coin holders" it's the coin holder companies. It's a commercial Web out there, more and more. But this doesn't of course prevent anybody from putting up a noncommercial site, simply to share information. If you haven't done this, it's not that difficult. All you need is an ISP that provides free Web space (alternately, you can use a free Web host, though typically there are more limitations with this). You can create the HTML that directs how Web browsers display your pages in Microsoft Word, using Netscape Composer, or with any of the more fully featured HTML editors such as Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver (some free Web hosts provide their own page creation tools). To create images of your coins, you can opt for anything from a $50 color scanner to a $1,000 (or higher) digital camera (lower priced, lower resolution cameras work fine for Web imaging as long as their macro capabilities let the lens get close enough to the coin). And you can tweak these images afterward, ideally to make them look on screen as they look in hand, with image editing programs that also range from the inexpensive (Jasc's Paint Shop Pro, others even less expensive) to the pricey (Adobe Photoshop). Fun stuff... -- Email me at (delete "remove this") Coin Collecting: Consumer Guide: http://rg.ancients.info/guide Glomming: Coin Connoisseurship: http://rg.ancients.info/glom Bogos: Counterfeit Coins: http://rg.ancients.info/bogos |
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Reid Goldsborough spoke thusly...
It's interesting that with some search phrases that have commercial connections, such as "coin grading" and "coin holders," the relevant sites I've put together don't even wind up on the first page of Google's results. For instance, with "coin grading" it's the individual coin grading services that dominate, and with "coin holders" it's the coin holder companies. It's a commercial Web out there, more and more. But this doesn't of course prevent anybody from putting up a noncommercial site, simply to share information. There is a whole science surrounding google results (also used by yahoo and aol searches). I have read up quite a few things and learned some tricks over the past few months. The bigger sites (and those are often commercial) have a definite advantage over smaller sites because of something called page rank (basically page rank is a representation of how many sites link to a particular site). A site like PCGS may have a PR of 6, mine has a PR of 4. That means that PCGS is much more likely, overall, to be ranked higher than my site for a particular keyword...especially a generic keyword like 'Coin' or something similar. One of the ways to get around this and get better ranking is to target specific groups of keywords and put them in your page title (and hope a site with a higher page rank doesn't have the same keywords in their title). For example, my museum stuff is targeted to collectors and non- collectors looking for prices and general information so I have set up the titles to be Coin Design - Price, Value, History, and Grade Information. That helps get the pages high for searches like Bust Dollar Value or Bust Dollar Information or Bust Dollar Price even though I don't do particularly well for just 'Bust Dollar'. I don't reach number one all the time for each series but I do typically get in the first few links for each series with those type of searches (history, price, value, etc). There are many more tips for helping your search engine ranking (such as keyword density, navigation structure, etc) but inbound links (Page Rank) and page titles are two ways that I have found very important. Page titles are easy and something you have direct control over. Links are more difficult and take time but are very important too. -- Stujoe The Stujoe Collection: Coin Grading, News, Forums and more... http://www.TheStujoeCollection.com/forums |
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On Sat, 1 Nov 2003 22:11:46 -0600, Stujoe
wrote: That helps get the pages high for searches like Bust Dollar Value or Bust Dollar Information or Bust Dollar Price even though I don't do I don't know if many people include the word "information" in their searches for information. It's assumed, isn't it? It's interesting playing with Google. What's the most common coin related search phrases? I'd guess "coin collecting" and "coin values." With both, Chuck D'Ambra's Coin Collecting FAQ comes up first. With "coin collecting," Dan Hersam's site CoinCollector.org is second, the ANA's site is sixth, Coin Today is seventh, and the U.S. Mint's site is tenth. When you type "coins" into Google, oddly, T. K. Mallon-McCorgray's site The Coins and History of Asia comes up first. I didn't think Seleukid, Persian, and so on coins were so popular (they're not, though there are collectors who specialize in this area). This Asian coin site is followed by the U.S. Mint's site. -- Email me at (delete "remove this") Coin Collecting: Consumer Guide: http://rg.ancients.info/guide Glomming: Coin Connoisseurship: http://rg.ancients.info/glom Bogos: Counterfeit Coins: http://rg.ancients.info/bogos |
#5
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In , on 11/02/2003
at 04:03 PM, Reid Goldsborough said: When you type "coins" into Google, oddly, T. K. Mallon-McCorgray's site The Coins and History of Asia comes up first. I didn't think Seleukid, Persian, and so on coins were so popular (they're not, though there are collectors who specialize in this area). This Asian coin site is followed by the U.S. Mint's site. Load up that page. He http://www.grifterrec.com/coins/coins.html Ok. now use your browser to View-Source and you'll see the HTML from that page. Take notice of all of the META values set. Partularly META NAME="keywords". Document (web site) indexing technology is changing all the time, but it used to be that the text of a page was more important. Still is, but I know all the "hints" that a web page author can throw in META tags (meant for use by web spiders and browser mechanics) can play a big part. Nick |
#6
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Reid Goldsborough spoke thusly...
On Sat, 1 Nov 2003 22:11:46 -0600, Stujoe wrote: That helps get the pages high for searches like Bust Dollar Value or Bust Dollar Information or Bust Dollar Price even though I don't do I don't know if many people include the word "information" in their searches for information. It's assumed, isn't it? My raw access logs tell me it isn't always assumed. ;-) It's interesting playing with Google. What's the most common coin related search phrases? Here is a tool to find some of them: http://inventory.overture.com/d/sear...ry/suggestion/ I'd guess "coin collecting" and "coin values." With both, Chuck D'Ambra's Coin Collecting FAQ comes up first. A page rank of 6 = links from a lot of other sites plus high keyword density (and coin collecting in the page title) help his FAQ (also the rcc FAQ) page out in the rankings. With "coin collecting," Dan Hersam's site CoinCollector.org is second, Site names (ie: CoinCollector.org) containing a selected keyword also get a boost in rankings. The way google's algorithm is makes it very hard, and almost useless, for a smalltimer to try and optimize for keywords like "Coin Collecting" and "Coin Values" or, God forbid, "Coin". It is often better to try and find your own niche that is less competitive but still relevant for your site. JMHO. -- Stujoe The Stujoe Collection: Coin Grading, News, Forums and more... http://www.TheStujoeCollection.com/forums |
#7
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Nick Knight spoke thusly...
Take notice of all of the META values set. Partularly META NAME="keywords". Document (web site) indexing technology is changing all the time, but it used to be that the text of a page was more important. Still is, but I know all the "hints" that a web page author can throw in META tags (meant for use by web spiders and browser mechanics) can play a big part. I think the current thinking (ie google guessing) is that google does not take Meta words into very high account in its results algorithm. Probably because it is so easy to 'keyword spam' in meta tags. I am sure some search engines stil use them but almost all of a site's traffic is going to typically come from Google (AOL/Yahoo) and MSN. Another thing about google, it will penalize site in the rankings if they are doing something such as keyword spamming, hidden text, or bogus link exchanges, etc. -- Stujoe The Stujoe Collection: Coin Grading, News, Forums and more... http://www.TheStujoeCollection.com/forums |
#8
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On Sun, 2 Nov 2003 15:42:43 -0600, Stujoe
wrote: I think the current thinking (ie google guessing) is that google does not take Meta words into very high account in its results algorithm. Probably because it is so easy to 'keyword spam' in meta tags. Google uses some meta tags but not others. It uses, for instance, the meta description tag in part or in full (depending on length) for what it displays as a description in the search results. But it ignores the meta keyword tag. I am sure some search engines stil use them but almost all of a site's traffic is going to typically come from Google (AOL/Yahoo) and MSN. Currently, this is true. Yahoo, AOL, Netscape, and iWon all use Google as their search engine. But Yahoo recently bought the Inktomi search technology, which MSN also uses, and may switch to it. Inktomi, unlike Google, factors in the meta keyword tag. Another thing about google, it will penalize site in the rankings if they are doing something such as keyword spamming, hidden text, or bogus link exchanges, etc. According to all I've heard and read, the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site (page rank, as you said) are weighed most by Google in prioritizing its search results. Less important, but still important, are the title tag a sits use (if it uses one), headline and subhead tags, and something like 100 other HTML, design, and off-page factors. -- Email me at (delete "remove this") Coin Collecting: Consumer Guide: http://rg.ancients.info/guide Glomming: Coin Connoisseurship: http://rg.ancients.info/glom Bogos: Counterfeit Coins: http://rg.ancients.info/bogos |
#9
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In , on 11/02/2003
at 05:40 PM, Reid Goldsborough said: According to all I've heard and read, the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site (page rank, as you said) are weighed most by Google in prioritizing its search results. Less important, but s Another thing. Well, I use yahoo and don't normally google for anything but newsgroups ... Have you ever notice how Yahoo's links are all routed back to their own servers, which then redirect you to the selected link? They're counting how many times people have actually clicked on a link through them. Nick |
#10
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On Mon, 03 Nov 2003 00:08:14 GMT, "Nick Knight"
wrote: Have you ever notice how Yahoo's links are all routed back to their own servers, which then redirect you to the selected link? They're counting how many times people have actually clicked on a link through them. Yahoo has done a very good job with email-based discussion groups (Yahoo Groups), Web-based email (Yahoo Mail), and shopping (Yahoo Shopping), but its directory stinks, which ironically is how it started of course. Many key sites aren't included in Yahoo's categories, some of its "Most Popular" sites are wildly esoteric, and site submissions to it may never show up. A much better directory is ODP (Open Directory Project ( http://www.dmoz.com), which in fact is the directory that Google uses and a number of other search portals license and use. Yahoo's auction site (Yahoo Auctions) is also awful, having totally blown the opportunity to give eBay, well, a run for its money. -- Email me at (delete "remove this") Coin Collecting: Consumer Guide: http://rg.ancients.info/guide Glomming: Coin Connoisseurship: http://rg.ancients.info/glom Bogos: Counterfeit Coins: http://rg.ancients.info/bogos |
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