A lot of people ask about the sources of traffic.

Here's a list in no particular order:

1) Directories
Directories are website listings. The trick is to find a directory which receives huge volumes of traffic itself. Start by applying for listings in Yahoo, DMOZ and Looksmart. While these may not be the best directories, it's a start. Getting listed isn’t easy but once achieved you will see a significant lift in your website traffic. Look at other directories but make sure they have a good traffic rating (use Alexa).

2) Reciprocal Links
This is the oldest form of web traffic and is still one of the most effective. Simply having your website listed on other websites and listing websites on your own is a great way to receive traffic. By swapping links, webmasters hope that people will click on their link in other websites thereby generating website traffic. It also is highly rated by search engines. The only trick here is to ensure that you're links are all relevant and active.

3) Article Writing.
Write an article on any topic which interests you, optimize it for keywords and be sure to include your website URL in the bio line at the bottom of the article. Then submit it to blogs, ezines, directories on the web. This will generate website traffic and create backlinks to your site, which in turn helps with search engine rankings.

4) Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Make sure your website is search engine friendly. Ensure all the meta and alt tags are completed, optimize the text for your chosen keywords, ensure there is an H1 header, update your robots.txt, update your google sitemap. Punch your website in here to simulate how a Search Engine will see your page http://www.seochat.com/seo-tools/spider-simulator/

5) Blogs
Blogs are a lot of work and if you're not prepared to put in the time required to regularly create compelling written content than skip this step. If you are going to updtate a blog with compelling content ensure your blog is hosted on your site, that it links to your important pages and that you ping each time your blog is updated. A regularly updated blog will attract readers which in turn builds website traffic.

6) Social Networks, Forums & Blog Comments
Becoming a member of online communities such as forms and blogs will encourage high quality traffic. Leaving your URL in forums will generate website traffic in two ways. First, people who read your post are likely to click the link to checkout your site. Secondly search engines will generally accept the link a counting towards your link popularity. The "nofollow" search engine command is usually employed by siteowners to distract from blatent spamming. Become an active good member of online communities and this will work well.

7) Viral Advertising
If you have a message and you tell 10 people and they each tell 10 people and so on, by the time the message goes through 10 levels it has been passed on to a million people. This is a comon tactic on sites such as Youtube. Many progressive online busienss owners know that creating interesting content that can be easily shared is an important part of success.

8) Traffic Exchanges
Traffic that is productive on one site may not be productive on another. If you can identify this traffic and re-route it either on your own site or to another (in exchange for some of theirs), you'll be further ahead. Google does this - if you preform a Google search from the U.K., the first page of results will usually be U.K. related. Ad Networks also commonly do this - if their algorithm says that they don't have any relevant ads to serve, they'll retrieve one from their "partner" ad networks to display instead.

9) Classifies Ads
Do a search for “classified ads” and you will find many sites, which accept classified advertisements. Make sure you place your ad in a site complimentary to your product. Generally sites at the top of Google/Yahoo searches will perform better than those lower down. Just remember not to be spammy and ensure that the words you use sound (and are) legit.

10) Purchased Traffic & Pay Per Click Advertising
Programs like Google's Adwords will deliver pre-qualified targeted website traffic to your site. There are also a plethora of different ways to buy traffic from various different sources. On some online industries (adult for example), purchasing traffic can be the best, easiest way to increase revenue. However, many online businesses have found that purchasing traffic doesn't work. Often there is a surge is traffic, but not a surge in sales. Between hosting costs, resource consumption, etc buying traffic can easily cost you more than the upfront fee if not done with care.

What is the future business model of the music industry?

Evan Asks:

Major labels are having issues, mainly because the business model they're operating on is obsolete. Obviously the Internet is proving itself to be a major part of the future of the music business, but the new model hasn't quite solidified yet. What will the role of record labels be, will "major" labels go extinct, and how will new artists emerge from the sea of Internet wannabes?

Rob’s Answer:

It's been prophesized [1] that there are 5 possible business models that the music industry could adopt or be forced into.

1) FREE

This is the easy choice for consumers. It's already very easy to obtain current music for free. A lot of money, time and effort goes into releasing albums for free.

However, this is a conceivable business model. Already, artists and labels know that diversified income results in the greatest profit. Sean Combs is well known for his empire of clothes, jewelry, accessories, let alone his popular music.

It's completely possible that music profits could be sustained by monopolizing on success in areas beyond music.

2) PAY WHAT YOU WANT

Radiohead made the biggest splash with this. However, it's been going on for years at local concerts all over North America. It's common place for a band to load up a table with CD's and ask $20 for them. The band may not necessarily get their asking price, but chances are they'll sell a good number of CD's if they're open to negotiation.

3) PAY BY POPULARITY

This idea is pretty self explanatory. However, if this was a viable option, why hasn't iTunes implemented it?

Apple makes very little per song [2]. Just like CD sales, iTunes is still responsible for splitting the revenue from each sale with a bunch of different people. It would make sense that they'd want to make more money and the best way to do this logically would be to charge based on popularity.

4) SUBSCRIPTION

The subscription model seems to be the most attractive in a compromise between consumer demand and publishers. Consumers would purchase a subscription just like NetFlix but rather than renting DVD's, they receive professionally encoded (high quality) digital audio.

The biggest problem with this scenario is that publishers are currently stuck on DRM (Digital Rights Management) issues. Consumers are currently demanding that content be available across the electronic devices they own. DRM is currently clunky, insecure and worst of all, horribly inadequate.

5) MUSIC TAX

As the name implies, the music tax is favored by governments (Canada especially) and Publishers alike. Quite simply, put a levy on each sale to offset the effect of piracy.

The huge problem with this is that the folks who are paying for music are penalized while people who download illegally aren't. That doesn't seem right at all.

CONCLUSION

The underlying issue to finding a business model is being overlooked by the Music Industry. They are so caught up in piracy and DRM technology that they are missing the fact that it's the product itself that's the problem.

I'm not saying that music is any better or any worse than it has been. I'm saying that the products that Producers are assembling and marketing do not reflect consumer demand.

Due to our recent history (Napster, Gnutella, Torrents, etc) consumers have devalued music and as a result, the music industry needs a complete overhaul. The industry needs to put quality and consistency in the forefront. They need to take a combined approach of these 5 methods to form products that can be (in part or in low quality) be given away for free, subscribed to, etc.

Above all else, at this moment advertising (online and offline) is going through a revolution. Advertising is in a state of disarray and everyone, including the music industry needs to redefine how they make money from ads. The comments given around this topic at the Grammys [3] are a direct example of this revolution.

The bottom line is that the music industry (as a whole) needs to carefully and completely reconsider itself.

Source(s):
[1] http://www.last100.com/2007/10/11/music-industry-five-alternative-business-models/

[2] http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/bitsandbytes/archive/2008/10/02/how-apple-wrecked-the-music-industry-s-business-model-over-a-nickel.aspx

[3] http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090206/entertainment/centertainment_us_grammys

In addition to these sources, I have deeply and professionally considered music piracy on the Internet and specifically P2P networks.

What are the similarities and differences between Montessori and Waldorf methods?

Shaz Asks:

If you have experience with either of these education methods, please describe a typical day in the life of a kindergarten student.

Rob’s Answer:

I do have experience with both of these methods.  I was a classroom teacher before engaging my entrepreneurial spirit.  I have deeply considered, researched and experienced both systems.

1)
A Preface

The education that your child receives in a classroom is almost completely dependent on the teacher. There are several different methods of teaching and the best teachers know how to adapt the lessons that they teach to each individual. Teaching takes an incredible amount of experience, energy and care. First and foremost, evaluate the teachers who will be teaching your son or daughter in both systems and allow your careful considerations on this single fact play a major roll in choosing a school for your child.

2)
Sticking With The Program

Once you make a decision about the quality of instruction at a particular school, it is important to realize that there are significant and far reaching differences between Montessori and Waldorf schools.

Once a child is exposed to either system for any length of time, it will be very difficult for the child to switch. I have personally experienced children who have been moved from Montessori programs into Waldorf programs. The transition is difficult, frustrating, and significant for parents and children alike.

3)
Montessori vs. Waldorf

The key difference between Montessori and Waldorf methods is that in Montessori, the day is not divided between work, rest and play periods. Children are given the opportunity to choose their own activities in the classroom. On the other hand, Waldorf programs maintain scheduled activities that are adhered to through "periods" and often "days".

Each system has unique benefits. These benefits cater as much to the teaching styles of the instructors as they do the learning styles of the child. The unstructured play of the Montessori system fosters creativity and self awareness while the Waldorf system caters to the natural rhythms of development that children thrive on.

Beyond these core differences, you'll find that the subjective nature of teaching styles and environment play a major role in the comparisons that have been done. For example, Montessori evangelists will say that their system puts math and language first. Waldorf supporters will say that their proven system gives equal time to development in all areas. Understandably, these differences along with other common comparisons are not concise and differ from school to school.

4)
Typical Day

A typical day of a kindergarten student will be based on the structure that is set out by the school and more importantly in kindergarten, the teacher. You could receive anecdotal, generalized descriptions however the only real way to tell what a day in the life will look like is to sit in a classroom. If possible, I recommend that you volunteer your time in the schools you are considering. You will get an in depth view and know exactly what happens.

I hope that this provides some insight and helps you in your decision!

What is the best way to monitor a network and attached devices?

Jgraves Asks:

I work at a large campus with many servers and switches from different vendors.  We have 2 internet connections, T1 and microwave.  Our main campus has many buildings joined by fiber and each of these has one or more switch and/or server in it as well.  We also have 2 branch locations which are connected over the internet with a vpn connection and we may have another going online in the next month utilizing a point-to-point connection.

What I want is a solution that aggregates the condition of all of our systems and displays the status in a meaningful way.  And it should be able to email/text the technicians when there is a problem.

Rob’s Answer:

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) provides devices with a way to report their statistics to us.

"SNMP is used in network management systems to monitor network-attached devices for conditions that warrant administrative attention. It consists of a set of standards for network management, including an application layer protocol, a database schema, and a set of data objects."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snmp

All of the devices that you describe could be monitored with SNMP enabled and software from this list:
http://www.monitortools.com/snmp/

OpManage is particularly good:
http://manageengine.adventnet.com/products/opmanager/index.html?snmpmtr

Jgrave’s Feedback:

Thanks for the info on SNMP as the backbone technology. OpManager looks like it might be our best solution.

What is the most reliable way to access the Internet while on the road?

Marc Asks:

I’m looking for realistic solutions that allow people to work from the road, like full-time RV'ers, etc. I know WiFi is an option, but it requires specific locations, etc. What is the best range of EVDO, and is there something better? Perhaps satellite (although not quite as mobile)?

Rob’s Answer:

This is a difficult question to answer because the best answer depends on exactly where you are. Some services will work better in some areas than others.

Specifically speaking to full-time RV folks:

Most RV parks have 2 options to connect to the Internet.

1) WiFi
Most parks have large WiFi antennas and advertise coverage. Full time RV'ers will tell you that access is inconsistent. Between lackluster technical support to inadequate hardware (amplifiers, antennas and the like), WiFi is available but often problematic.

Some RV'ers mount inexpensive WiFi antennas on the top of their rigs to catch more of the signal and repeat it locally. Mounting the antenna up above the large tin-cans often yields a much better result and if setup correctly can help your neighbors too.

http://antenna-cosmtec.com/images/upload/YG-001-16.jpg

2) Community Access
Large parks will have a community center. Most that do have a business center like setup with a computer, printer and sometimes even wifi access so that patrons can bring their laptop in, answer emails and surf the net.

Beyond RV Parks, you've already listed the major options:

1) EVDO
This will work well in areas that are covered with good cell coverage. Check with your cellular carrier to find out exactly what coverage is offered in which areas that you're traveling. Don't forget to know exactly what the fees are associated with roaming.

2) Satellite
This is perhaps the slowest but most available option. As long as you can see the westward sky, you can get on the Internet. It's slow packet based transmissions don't work very well for large file transfers and uploads are a large problem.

3) Community / open WiFi
Some cities offer wifi and better still, some urban areas have commercial wifi access available. One of my favorites is to simply drive around popular hotels until NetStumbler says that there is an open available access point. Some hotels offer free WiFi Internet access making this an easy find.

4) Dial up
Good old school dial-up is included with many residential ISP plans. Contact your home ISP to find the dial up networking phone numbers, local exchanges and usage limits. A lot of pay-phones have RJ-11 phone line ports on them now to allow modem connections. This is a good, but obviously slow and cumbersome option.

5) Future
WiMax and other wireless technologies are on the horizon. There is a real need for truly mobile, inexpensive Internet. There will be significant growth in this area in the next 2-5 years.

CONCLUSION

Without knowing more about the specific areas that you're traveling and where you'll be staying, it's difficult to form a best answer to your question. However, with a little planning and a bit of calling ahead, you'll be able to easily find a form of Internet access listed above.

Source(s):
I planned the implementation of a Wireless Internet Service Provider. My Aunt and Uncle also RV full time and love to stay in touch via the Internet.

I want to open a website to sell my photographic art but I’m worried that people will steal my work. What do I do?

Ross asks:

I would like to open a website to sell my photographic art.  What do I need for the site security and content encryption to protect my pictures from people taking them without paying for them?

Rob’s Answer:

1)
If you're not already, use Adobe Lightroom.

Not only is it a professional level digitial photogprahic development package (that is outstanding), it will take care of watermarking, metadata, keywording, etc.

Importantly, Lightroom will also allow you to build a template for new photographic collections. With 1 quick export, you can resize, name and upload your photographs to your own, unique template. This will eliminate the need for any sort of Content Management System since you will have full control over your photographic collections.

Lightroom = wicked awesome.

2)
Find good hosting with a reliable policy on bandwidth overage. One of my photos was dugg and boy did it sting.

I didn't think about the overage that would occur on my small gallery and ended up paying just over $500 for the extra bandwidth. On the up side, I broke even because I had a record number of sales, but I didn't make any money either.

Think ahead, think bandwidth.

3)
Content protection isn't as important as you think.

At first, I was really worried about protecting my images. Here are some of the ways that you can protect your images online:

A) Hide the images by putting a blank file over the real image
B) Cut the images up so that when save is clicked, the person only receives a small portion of it.
C) Use watermarks like the stock photography sites do. Check out istockphoto.com for an example.
D) Use flash to show the images
E) Disable right click with Javascript

Here are the technical explanations on how to make each of these things work:
http://www.webresourcesdepot.com/10-ways-to-protect-images-from-being-stolen/

I quickly realized that if someone wanted a low resolution copy of my photograph, they would get it one way or another. Between using the Print Screen button, to disabling javascript, to using the clone tool in photoshop to remove watermarks, you'll never be able to protect your photographs from everyone.

4)
My Solution

If MP3 file sharing has taught the music industry anything, it is this one fact: People will pay for quality, options, and ease of access.

A)
Generate low quality (72dpi and below), small versions of your art for display online. Provide 1 ultra high quality example of what the person will receive when they purchase your work. A high resolution download along with a photo of the example hanging on a residential wall will instill trust in most people.

B)
Give people a cheap option. If someone wants a desktop background and not a full print, give them the option. Format and price a photo around $2 - $3 and most people who would have stolen the photo will buy it. Mentioning that you're a starving artist or the like helps this point too.

C)
Make your sales process easy, seamless, and trustworthy. iTunes is popular because it is soooo easy to purchase music. 2 clicks and you're done. Your payment gateway needs to be easy and trustworthy to detract theft.

P.S.
One quick note on traffic... submit a few of your highest selling photographs to all of the stock and online photographic marketplace sites.

You can find a list of these here:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=Sell+photographs

You won't make much money by doing this alone. The fees and requirements for submitting a volume of work are both daunting. However, when you submit a few of your best, people will search diligently for your work and will quickly become fans.

Oh, and send your fans photographic postcards (free from Vistaprint.com). Word of mouth is wicked awesome.

CONCLUSION
I found that selling photos online was a really great way to pay for my equipment. While theft is a concern, when you employ large scale ecommerce and piracy theory to even simple online transactions, you'll have a stronger bottom line.

I hope that this helps you!

Does re-submitting your sitemap cause a massive traffic spke? What’s your experience?

Jason Asks:

My site had a huge spike in traffic for a day--like 10-15x normal--after redoing our sitemap. It seems to have come back down (mostly), but we're wondering if this is a normal experience. What have you experienced after redoing your sitemap?

Rob’s Answer:

In my experience, no. Submitting a site map will not result in a spike of traffic.

However, I don't run a news portal like the one you have created.

I think that your site may have been quickly indexed and after running through the search engine algorithms has fallen off or been categorized correctly. I have experienced this myself when I've put large amounts of data online all at one time. Traffic goes up, gets sorted, goes down.

The real key to uncovering an answer to this question will come from your analytics. Combining those specific results with the timing of what was going on in development and on the site itself could lead to a concrete answer.

If the sitemap was the only thing that changed, then it must have been the source of the spike.

I might also have a quick look at how many new members registered before and after the spike / downtime.  If some of your marketing efforts suddenly took effect, then the registration process and natural traffic could be to blame.

Source(s):
I'm an I.T. pro with specific experience solving the problems of traffic intensive sites.