8 ways to help you improve your site

To help your site soar in 2010, The Rayvan Group has put together 8 ways to help you improve your site and increase site traffic:

1. Be impressive and up to date - Keeping an active blog is a great way to generate text heavy content that is sure to keep search engines coming back to index your site and thus drive traffic to it. Websites that are not updated on regular basis do not get indexed as often.
2. Keep it Simple - Remember that visitors should always be able to easily look around your site. Don't trick them into staying too long. If visitors are frustrated and can't find the right information, they are more likely to leave quickly and are less likely to come back.
3. Provide Contact Information - Make it simple for visitors to find ways they can reach out to you. Provide an email address, form for their questions or a place they can simply write in, such as guestbook. Of course you should always be cautious not to give out too personal information.
4. Submit to Directories - Adding your site to Google and other search engines helps index it faster. Submitting this information will allow your site to be considered for future searches.
5. Illustrate that File - Use keywords when naming your image files that are being used by your site. Doing so will help you gain visitors when people search using Google Images.
6. Create Links - Linking to your site from other websites will help generate more traffic and improve your placement in search engines.
7. Tag your Site - Adding site tags can increase the number of times your site shows up in search results. To pick the right keywords, try putting yourself in the shoes of your visitors.
8. Categorize your Site - Just like adding tags, categorizing your site helps to better define what your site is about, thus improving the quality of your site traffic.

Tips On Writing a Grant Proposal

First of all, let me define what a grant is.

Grants are sums of money awarded to finance a particular program or agency. Typically, these grant awards do not need to be paid back. Federal agencies, corporations and private foundation sponsor grant programs for various reasons.

Before creating a grant proposal, it is important to understand the goals of the particular funde, and of the grant program itself. You can do this simply by reading through the funders for Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Applications (RFA) and discussions with the information contact listed in each resource description.

At this time you can find that, in order for a particular project to be eligible for funding, the original concept may need to be modified to meet the criteria of the grant program. In allocating funds, programs base their decisions on the applicant's ability to fit its proposed activities within the program's interest areas.

It is important for an applicant to become familiar with eligibility requirements and other criteria related to the organization and grant program from which assistance is sought. Applicants should remember that the basic requirements, application forms, information, deadlines and procedures will vary for each grant maker.

Before You Begin Writing the Grant Proposal:

Rule #1: Believe that someone wants to give you the money!
Project your organization into the future.
Start with the end in mind...look at your organization's big picture.
Who are you? What are your strengths and priorities?
Create a plan not just a proposal.
Do your homework: Research prospective funders.
Try and search locally first. Target funding source that has interest in
your organization and program.

If you need the money now, you have started too late.