Trinkets Lockets And Empty Pockets

Writen by Dean Phillips

It never ceases to amaze me how many people set-up a website, without any type of plan or clue about how to promote it, how to write a sales letter, how to write an ad-- nothing!

Even more amazing is how many people try to conduct business online without any money.

The other day, I received an e-mail from a woman named Nadia inquiring about my E-mail Consultation Service.

In her e-mail, she explained she had "empty pockets" and couldn't afford my subscription fee. However, since her ancestors were gypsies, she had plenty of jewelry and she'd be willing to pay me with a few "trinkets and lockets," in exchange for my help. I politely declined her offer.

I get my share of crazy e-mails, so I have no idea if that one was a hoax or not. I'm assuming it was, since I never heard back from Nadia. Besides, I get so many e-mails every day from people asking me for free help and advice, I generally skim over them quickly and delete them.

People, listen to me, please! You can't conduct business online or offline without any money. You just can't do it! Now I'm not saying you need thousands of dollars--although that wouldn't hurt.

However, you need to at least have two or three hundred dollars in the bank to work with.

It's a myth that you can make money without having any money- -just a myth!

The number one reason why most businesses fail is because they're undercapitalized. They come online with just enough money to buy one ad--hoping to make a killing!

If that ad happens to be a success--bingo, instant cash flow! But if that one ad fails, just like that, they're out of business.

I know you're excited about your new business, and you can't wait to get started. However, instead of rushing into things, take a few more weeks or months to save up a little more money, and then get started.

Doing it that way does require a little more patience. But by having a little money to fall back on, you give yourself a greater chance to succeed, and in the long run, you'll be a lot better off!

About The Author

Dean Phillips is an Internet marketing expert, writer, publisher and entrepreneur. Questions? Comments? Dean can be reached at mailto: dean@lets-make-money.net

Visit his website at: http://www.lets-make-money.net

Step By Step To A Successful Website

Writen by Sunil Rajan

Brainstorm: Think of the type of site you want to create and the site name. Your site name should be catchy, easy to remember and relevant to the content of the site.

Buy the domain name and hosting: You need to buy a domain name that matches your site name (makes sense right?). this part can be frustrating as your idea for a name may already be taken. Search for alternatives or hyphenate it or go with an alternate suffix like ".org, .net, or .us"

Even though it maybe cheaper to go somewhere else for hosting, buy the hosting from the same company you bought the domain from. It's just easier that way and tech support will be able to help you out more since they can access all aspects of your account (if you need them)

Work on the design and layout of your site: Even though content is the most important factor to the success of your site, you need to be able to lure visitors in. if you have a clean and appealing site, then visitors will stay longer on your site. Another important thing about layout is here you will decide how all your content will be organized for accessibility.

Add content: This is where you wordsmith skills come out. Write, add pictures add whatever content you can think of that is relevant to your site. Organize the information in the view of the visitor

SEO your site: Search Engine Optimization is where you configure your site to be friendly to search engine results. This will make you rank hire on certain search results. The goal should be to listed on the first page on certain searched keywords.

Test your site:. Check for bugs and loop holes in your site. Look for spelling mistakes, broken links etc. you don't want to discredit you site from the start.

Add a Trend Analyzer:. By adding this feature you can see where your visitors are coming from, where they are located physically , how long they stay on your site, and what information do they look for. This can be very useful information when you decide to sell ad space on your site and you can then proove to your advertiziers the traffic you get to your site.

Submit to Search Engines, Advertise, Link exchange, One-way links: Submit your site to be crawled by search engines. Do a search for submit site or suggest a site and submit your site to those results. This part is extremely important as you want people to find you thru the search engine.

Advertise your site to search engine results like Google. This is the quickest way to get traffic to your site. go to www.google.com/adwords to start a campaign

Link Exchange can be very tedious. Look for sites to swap links with. You can even find sites that act like middleman where you can meet other people who want to swap links. Just do a search for link exchange. Be careful of who you do link exchanges with. Avoid: porn, gambling, and racial/hate sites.

A one-way link program is where you pay a monthly fee and you get a bunch of links pointing to your site. This can be a great way to increase the popularity of your site. However, try to check the quality of the links. Some programs have been listed a "link farms" and their links will not count towards your Page Rank in Google. If you can buy a one-way link from a high PR then do it.

SEO your site:. You have to tweak and configure your site so that it is optimized for search results. As you gain more traffic you will understand the type of visitors and what they are looking for. SEO it so you can rank higher on specific keywords. This is where your Trend Analyzer shines.

Continue to: Test you site for broken links, add content on a regular basis, look for methods to increase traffic for your site, get incoming links, etc.

Make improvements to your site: Look for ways to keep your visitors intrested in your site. add new features, offer new products.

Your site can never be finished. You have to continuously make improvements and make your visitors experience unique. Look for feedback from your visitors and add content relevant to your site.

Sunil Rajan offers reviews, advice and assistance for new webmaster interested in making money on the internet. His services are free as he provides assistance as a personal hobby. He enjoys helping those who want to make money thru his website http://www.therichmonkey.com His site contains information on setting up sites, how to make profits from them and how to keep an edge on the internet. Include this bio when reprinting.

How To Convert More Sales On Your Website

Writen by Matt Eliason

One of the biggest mistakes that most online retailers make is they do not take into account typical buyer behaviour. The conversion from real world to online provides many benefits to the retailer, but present some real challenges for the customer because their buying decision is made more difficult in an online environment.

This means having a website needs to be more than having just an online catalogue.

What to I mean? Lets take the example of a recent client of mine who sells sterling silver jewelry.

Their site that was well structured; the items pages were neatly laid out, images were clear, add to cart button clearly visible and there was a short description of the item. There was a page with a 14-day money back guarantee, and a privacy page saying your details would be kept secure. But still sales were slow.

What was missing? What could be done to encourage visitors to purchase?

The answer is we need to stop and think about buyer behaviour. Lets think about the buying process when we are in a physical store.

If the sales person handed you a card with a picture and short description of the item, would you buy? What if they went one step further – even let you look at the item through the glass counter top. Would you buy? Already we are providing more than the average website, but I bet you still have not said yes to buying.

What are the steps that we follow in our purchase decision process? First we would ask to hold the item. Even without asking the sales person a question we will be making evaluations based on the weight and feel of the item. Does the clasp look strong? If there are any gems, does the setting look well secured? How does it look against skin (fair, olive dark complexions)? These are just some of the subconscious questions we ask and answer during our appraisal, as we turn the item, hold it up against our skin or place on a finger.

If the answers are not instantly evident, we ask the sales person, who also provides encouraging comments about the item and your good choice.

So how does this translate to a web site?

Simply by addressing the natural flow of consumer assessment onto your web site.

Here are some basic steps you need to take:

1. Enhance your product descriptions; don't expect the image to sell the item for you. Describe how the item feels, smells, its weight. Are all items highest grade?

2. Make best use of images. If people try it on (jewellery, clothing etc) as part of the normal appraisal process, how can you best meet that need online? Do you need pictures of the necklace being worn on different skin types, or if clothing how does it look on different complexions and hair colours?

3. Tell people how they will feel by owning this item – that they will they look a million dollars in that dress, they will attract admiring glances, that it will enhance off the colour of their eyes – all designed to reassure the customer that they are making the right choice.

4. Make the returns policy statement with each item. Include it in the text perhaps like; 'we are so confident that you will be delighted this 'productname' that if you are not 100% satisfied, return within XX days for a full no questions asked refund".

Implement these steps and you will see your sales rates increase.

Visit our site http://www.plusone.com.au

About The Author

Copyright - feel free to reproduce this article in its unaltered form including this bio text.

Matt Eliason is CEO of PlusOne -> Marketing, Media Communications. He has more than five years experience in online marketing ans runs many successful websites. Take advantage of this experience with a free review of your website. See www.plusone.com.au for details.

matt@plusone.com.au

Building A Web Store On Shoestring Budget In Less Than Four Hours

Writen by Nowshade Kabir

Starting a business online is no longer as difficult as it used to be! Now, there are plenty of interesting business ideas that anybody can pick up from various Internet resources. Startup related cost, which used to deter many in taking action, has become negligible. Many people already started to notice this! According to a recent report GoDaddy has gained 294,368 new sites in just the first 5 months of 2005 while the top four domain registrars combined, including GoDaddy, have gained more than half a million. Mind it! This is not the quantity of domains registered, this is the quantity of websites hosting with them! This recent explosive growth means one thing. Online business is on the rise!

So, if you have one or several products to sell to a large geographical area and you would like to start an online business fairly quick but you don't have much money to spend on it, there are still ways to do so.

Using the integrated features of many portals you can start your dream e-commerce site on a shoe-string budget within several hours. I am going to show you how to do this on Rusbiz.com.

Sign up
Preparation needed:
Write an informative, precise but easy-to-read profile of your company in less than 600 words. If your company's name is less than 12-letter long you are fine. If not, choose a nice name, preferably, by shortening the company name. This you will require for login name. Create a logo for your company. You can do it later if you don't have a logo as yet.

Steps: Register your company by filling up the membership form. Choose a membership other than basic. You need an option with the ability to build a web store. Copy and paste your prepared profile. Once you submit the form you will be taken to a page called My Business.

Time required: Maximum one hour including preparation.

Add products to the e-catalog
This step will help you create electronic catalog of your products that you will use on your website as well.

Preparation: Take digital pictures of your products. Each picture should not be more than 100 KB. Make thumbnail versions of your pictures. Thumbnails should be less than 10 KB. Both pictures and thumbnails should be of JPG or GIF formats.

If your product requires special instructions, schemas, etc., make an electronic copy of them as well. This should be of doc, txt, or PDF format and less than 50 KB in size.

Steps: Now from your My Business page click on the "Add Product" button. You will be prompted to "Add Product" page. Next step is to select the correct subcategory, where your product should be listed. First, choose the main category and than keep on selecting the right subcategory until you end up on the final subcategory. This E-catalog is based on USPSC, electronic classification standard, which offers a ten-digit, five-level logical hierarchy for organizing products and services. Once you successfully selected the fifth level subcategory you will be prompted to a detail form. Add all the necessary information about your product. Insert the pictures in the designated places. Once you finished, submit the form. Continue doing the same for all the products. You have just created your first electronic catalog!

If you face difficulties, as a premium member you don't have to go through the steps outlined above, you can just send all the required information to Rusbiz customer service and they will take care of your e-catalog.

Time required: half an hour including preparation.

Build your web store
You will be surprised to know that part of your web store is already created from the information that you have inserted so far! From My Business page click on Manage web store in order to check and edit what you already have so far and what else do you have to do. Your web store has 9 more pages apart from the product pages. The pages are Home, Contact, Company events, Services, Employee information, Company News, Surveys, and FAQ.

Preparation: You can gather information for some of the vital pages to give your site a professional look and feel. As the pages are template based, you can edit and insert needed information, whenever you like.

Steps: From Manage Web Store the first thing you should do is configure your web store. This means, you have to select currency of your choice, payment and delivery methods. Next you should choose which of the products you would like to display on your home page. I'll also suggest you to fill up some of the above mentioned pages, i.e. employee bios, etc. This gives your web store a human touch.

Voila! Your e-commerce website is ready to go!

Time required: Maximum two hours including preparation.

Here are the advantages of having a web store like this one:

• You don't need to know HTML

• Navigation and editing of your website is easy and simple

• You receive instant access to Rusbiz community of thousands of prospective customers

• Shopping cart is an integrated part of the package

• Membership allows you to sell products through Rusbiz e-marketplace

• As a member you are also allowed to use Rusbiz business process management system

• You will get access to other useful features of Rusbiz system

• Your website will be indexed by major search engines within a matter of days

The best thing about this method is you can start with 3 months Simple Membership for just US$ 65! If you need to use a domain name, you can readdress it to your Rusbiz web store. After a while, if you feel that you require a full-fledged e-business website, professional developers from Rusbiz can take care of this as well. As more and more people are getting involved in online business, if you don't start now, you might miss the boat! So, take action!

Nowshade Kabir, is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of Rusbiz.com – a Global B2B Exchange with solutions to create e-catalog, Web store, business process management and other features to run a business online. You can read various articles written by Nowshade Kabir at http://ezine.rusbiz.com

The Evolution Of Search

Writen by Tyler Houston

There have been many significant changes to the face of search over the last several years with engines becoming more intelligent than ever before. Today's users expect mainly fast, easy, relevant and satisfactory search results. In response to this search engines have responded by giving users more control over search results than ever through the emergence of alternative search engines.

One instance of these so-called alternative search engines goes by the name of Nutch (http://www.nutch.org/). Nutch is a two-year-old open source project, which has been hosted previously at Soundforge and backed by a non-profit organization. Since then it has been determined that the Apache license is the most appropriate, with Nutch no longer requiring the overhead of an independent non-profit organization. The board of directors and the developers both were in favor of the move to the Apache Foundation.

Nutch builds on Lucene technology, which was developed under the watchful eye of Doug Cutting, the primary developer for both of these open source projects. Doug has been working in the field for almost two decades and has spent three years at Apple, four years at Excite as well as 5 years at Xerox PARC, so it is safe to say that Doug definitely knows his stuff. Lucene is suitable for nearly any application that requires full-text search, especially cross-platform. It is a full-featured, high-performance, text search engine library, coded entirely in Java to implement web search. Nutch is an application; you can download it and run it. It adds a crawler and other web-specific stuff to Lucene as well as it's very own search algorithm and a link analysis module. Nutch aims to search the entire web like Google or Yahoo! but has a few tricks up its sleeve thanks to the beauty of open source licensing.

I recently had the privilege to interview Mel Strocen, the CEO of Jayde Online, Inc. (http://www.exactseek.com/), one of the Web's major online publication and search companies. Mel had some very exciting news to report on how Jayde is planning to utilize the Nutch application.

Jayde has been developing a customized version of Nutch for the last eight months and is planning to launch a search engine based on the Nutch technology within the next few weeks. The initial beta version will consist of a network of dedicated servers with an index of between 20 and 30 million website listings.

The real potential of this new search engine, and others using the Nutch technology, lies in the fact that it is open source and uses a "Plug-In Architecture". What this means is that the engine will be perpetually evolving and constantly improving to better facilitate the needs of searchers. One terrific example that shows us just how beneficial this type of open source plug-in technology can be is the FireFox web browser (http://www.firefox.com/).

FireFox, in its short existence has eaten up a significant portion of the once all mighty Internet Explorer's market share. The popularity of this browser is due to the fact that it is constantly making itself smarter. You can now find a plug-in for virtually anything that you require , ranging from web developer, downloading, and search tools to privacy, security, website integration and humorous plug-ins. You name it, there is an extension for it. The extension library consists of nearly six hundred different plug-ins and is growing daily thanks to the help of contributors everywhere.

Now just imagine implementing this type of plug-in technology to a search engine, with one type of plug-in for say searching MP3s and another plug-in for downloading PDFs. The possibilities of this new open source search technology are infinite. Now the term "open-source search engine" may make a lot of people's minds wander towards the idea of Black Hat search engine optimization. The primary developer of Nutch, Doug Cutting, feels that the closed-source advantage is not nearly as much of a factor as one might imagine it to be. The fact that the search engine is open-source allows sp@mmers to be detected far faster than that of closed-source search engines latest sp@m detecting algorithms. Either way, you know that the sp@mmers will eventually figure out how it works, the only difference is how quickly. So the top anti-sp@m techniques, closed or open source, are those that continue to function even when their mechanism is known.

Another type of alternative search engine technology has just recently been released to beta version is "Relevancy Rank" from the Claria Corporation (http://www.claria.com/relevancyrank/about/), the minds behind Gator. I had the pleasure to conduct an interview with the Vice President and Executive Chief of Marketing, Scott Eagle. He had some very interesting things to say about the launch of this new product and what exactly the benefit of Relevancy Rank has to the user. This unique search technology takes the results from the top search engines and applies its very own algorithms to output to the user the most relevant results.

Relevancy Rank is a combination of personalization, localization, time spent at any one site, click through rates as well as conversions. These are all taken into account to provide the most relevant results. "For an example, if you happened to be a zoologist who loved to search for different animals and information relating to animals and you entered the word "Jaguar" you would be returned far different results from say a car enthusiast who searched frequently for different types of vehicles and also typed in the word "Jaguar"", noted Scott. Relevancy Rank helps to provide you with the most relevant results based on your previous search behavior.

With the end users expectations continuing to grow, these twists on the way that results are gathered and displayed are an enormous help in satisfying the user's hunger to get to the results that they are looking for. I am quite anxious to see how these new forms of search technology fair out over the next several months. One thing is for sure, these new technologies are sure to revolutionize the way that web search is conducted and pave a new path for the evolution of search.

Tyler Huston is the SEO Manager for Beanstalk Search Engine Positioning Inc. Beanstalk is proud to offer their guaranteed SEO services to clients from around the world. To keep updated on the latest going's on in the search engine world watch for Tyler's posts on the Beanstalk SEO blog.

What Is Sql

Writen by John L

What is SQL? SQL stands for Structured Query Language and is the lingua franca in the database world. SQL is a standard that is used by all database vendors and programmers to define, extract and access the information that is stored in databases. SQL began life as an IBM creation but was standardized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as ANSI/ISO SQL in 1988. Since then ANSI/ISO SQL standard continued to evolve. The ANSI-SQL group has since published three standards over the years:

1. SQL89 (SQL1)

2. SQL92 (SQL2)

3. SQL99 (SQL3)

SQL is a query language. It is English-like and easy to use. However, although there are more than 90 SQL reserved words, most programmers seldom use more than the following handful of commands - SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, FROM, WHERE, HAVING, BETWEEN, LIKE, OR, AND, NOT, IN, ORDER, GROUP and BY.

For example, if you had a database table named "employees" and you wanted to retrieve all records where the employee has the last name "goodman", you would use the following SQL statement:

SELECT * FROM employees WHERE lastname = 'goodman';

There are many different categories of SQL statements but the basic ones which all programmers should be familiar with are the SQL statements that:

1. Create tables and manipulate their definitions

2. Query the table data

3. Manipulate the table data

SQL is predominantly used by 2 types of users - programs and humans (keying in the commands through a database client) - to pass instructions to databases. SQL commands can be keyed into a database client like the MySQL Query Browser or the SQL Server Enterprise Manager and executed to either return a result or modify records in the database. SQL can also be used in conjunction with programming language or scripting language like Microsoft Visual Basic or PHP to communicate with the database.

Although SQL is a world standard, it is unfortunate that most database vendors have come up with different dialects and variations. This is because every database vendor wants to differentiate their database products from the crowd. One good example is Microsoft SQL Server's TRANSACT-SQL. TRANSACT-SQL is a superset of SQL and is designed for use only with Microsoft SQL Server. Although it does make programming much easier for software developers, it is not compliant with other databases like Oracle or MySQL - making TRANSACT-SQL programs non database-portable. As such, although many of these features are powerful and robust, it is good practice to exercise caution and limit your SQL use to be compliant with the ANSI/ISO SQL standards and ODBC-Compliant.

Courtesty of SQLPrimer.com. For more information, please contact the Webmaster of SQLPrimer.com - http://www.sqlprimer.com.

Internet Merchant Accounts Facts You Should Know

Writen by Christopher Luck

Why is it important to your online business that you use an internet merchant account? I am told that if I do business online, then I must have an internet merchant account. The truth is that they are right. If my customers can't pay for my services or merchandise with their credit cards or their own merchant accounts, then I am unlikely to be successful. Online business and shopping are prevalent, but only if credit cards can be used to make purchases.

So what exactly is an internet merchant account? It is generally a service set up by an online merchant account provider so that an online business can accept credit cards and e-checks as payment. The provider will then authorize e-checks and credit cards for payments in exchange for either a flat per transaction rate or a small percentage of the money involved in the transaction.

As a rule, banks do not offer merchant accounts for use online to their customers. This is where the recent influx in internet merchant account providers comes from. There are a number of services available online that offer these services specifically to online business owners and individuals in need of internet merchant accounts for various reasons. When a business is online, obviously there is no human contact between that merchant and customers. Without human contact, cash cannot change hands. Because of that, an internet merchant account is absolutely necessary for your online business. First, though, you must choose one.

As valuable as they are, you should make sure you have a good relationship with your internet merchant account provider, since they will be handling so much of your money. A good internet merchant account provider will offer you speedy credit card sales processing as well as other services that will aid your business. You also want to make sure there is some flexibility in that the provider works with all credit card brands and possibly even other payment methods. You also will want your internet merchant account provider to handle customer service issues quickly. Remember, this is your business and your money, you have every right to demand top notch service.

The last thing you should take into account when choosing an internet merchant account: costs. There are costs associated with them, as was mentioned earlier. However, you need to take the time to find out all costs and cost combos the provider has. Some charge the percentage, others charge flat rate, and still others charge a small flat rate plus a small percentage. Only you will know how much is too much, so think about your business and the volume you will do versus the costs to help make your final decision.

If you are opening an online business, you certainly aren't going to be able to take cash payments for your products or services. Therefore, you will need to be able to take credit cards, e-checks, and perhaps other forms of payment. To make that happen, associate yourself with an internet merchant account provider. Screen carefully, though, because you are talking about a service that will handle most of your company's revenue.

If you would like to view more of my personal articles on online merchants, please visit my computing site.

6 Steps To Your Own Website

Writen by Klaas Koopman

A lot of people these days are interested in getting their own place on the world wide web. Whether it´s a personal site like a blog, or a business site, they all need to have a decent plan before they get started.

A few years ago I started designing and creating websites myself. I started just to show off to others, but I noticed it wasn't as easy I thought it was. I mean, it is easy to get a site online; you just buy a template, pay a coder, and pay some one to insert content and advertise for you then you're done. But if you want to do things yourself, that's where it gets tricky.

After a few sites, I managed to find a certain pattern in the process of creating and managing my websites.

1. I always start with an idea for subject and content. Believe me - never create a website about something you hate and know nothing about. Instead create a website about something you know a lot about and like to tell other people about. What also works is writing about a subject you would like to know more on, after doing your own research. Newbies can explain information to other newbies easier then pro´s explaining information to newbies.

2. Then I think of a design to go with it, to reflect its idea. Like if your subject is Boats, then don't go with a flaming red design. Sure it could do it, but I would prefer for a blue, water-like design to reflect its subject.

3. If the design is done, you need to get it coded. Some create their designs while they code, but I prefer to use a graphical program to first create the whole design, just the way I want it to be. Then I slice it all (contact me if you want to read an article about that) and save it for the web. I usually have a small group of coders I trust to code my designs and they send it back to me when it's coded.

4. Well then everything is almost done you would think. You got a design coded and everything. But the answer is NO. You are just starting. Sure you have a site and all, but you do not have hosting or a domain name. In order to get your site up and running, you will need something called hosting. It's like when you buy a house it needs to be on ground. Well the hosting is the ground here, and your website is the house. Without hosting, your site is almost useless. These days you can choose between free hosts, which in my opinion aren't great, but if you want to start and try out, I'd suggest you work with a free host first. And then there is paid hosting, you pay for a certain amount of server space and bandwidth and sometimes extra features.

5. Now if you have chosen to go for a free host, then please skip this step, cause you probably won't be able to use it. A domain is needed for people to find your website. For example if you website is called BoatFish, then you could make the domain www.boatfish.com or www.boatfish.net, whatever you choose for. There are quite a large number of extensions you can go for. But I always suggest you go for a .com domain name. People tend to look for them more often than for a .net or any other extension.

6. The most important part of your website is your content. People stay or come back to your website because you have good content, or leave if you don´t. So please write up some good content for your site before launching it; this can cost you a lot of visitors. I can't show you how to submit content, or what kind of content you should be submitting, this is something you should look into yourself.

7. Now you got everything you need to get your site online. And still you are not done at all. You can site around and wait for people to come to your website, but not many will. That's why advertising will be your best bet to go for. You can link exchange and/or go for SEO. Search Engine Optimization is a great way to get many hits towards your website. I do not have any websites that haven't been optimized for search engines, because I know seo'ing brings in many visitors, and customers. SEO means Search Engine Optimization, which means that it will try to rank you as high as possible at search engines. If some one searches for a keyword regarding your website they will see your site and click on it. This is seriously a great way to get many, many visitors.

8. Now your site is done and you can keep submitting content to your site, to keep visitors coming back. Good luck! And let me know if this helped you in any way.

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If you want to get more articles or Webmaster related information go to Http://http://www.webmasterspalace.com. It's a place for all webmasters to unite and get their resources from. My name is Klaas Koopman and I am a Dutch Webmaster. You can contact me if you need anything Webmaster related. Thank you for reading. For Designs go to http://www.kkportfolio.net.

Who Owns Your Website

Writen by Steve Freedman

It seems like a pretty easy question to answer, but you'd be surprised at how many times the answer doesn't turn out the way you might think.

Several years ago a client contracted with us because they were dissatisfied with their current website and wanted one that they could easily update themselves.

When we started to work on their website we discovered several things. Their previous Webmaster had created their logo (they paid him to create it), which they had on their website, but also on all of their business cards, brochures and on their entire product line.

When they contacted their Webmaster, to let him know that they were going to have their website redone by Archer Strategic Alliances, he told them that he owned the copyright on their logo and that they could no longer use it! It seems that the person who creates a "work of art" owns the copyright to it. They hadn't thought to specify in their contract with him that they had a perpetual, irrevocable and exclusive right to use it.

Another client had paid a Webmaster to build a website for their in-home care business. The webmaster had done so, but had used a program that wrote the web page's code in a non-standard manner. It worked on one browser – Internet Explorer – but it didn't work on Netscape. Then the Webmaster wanted to get paid additional amounts to modify the code.

Recently a new client contracted to have their website re-done. While gathering the information necessary, we discovered that their previous Webmaster had registered the client's Domain Name – their "www" – in HIS name, and that he was the owner of that Domain Name. It didn't matter that the Domain Name was the same as their business name – he OWNED it!

Fortunately, he was an ethical Webmaster who had registered it in his own name just for the convenience of doing so and to be sure that the client knew when to renew the name.

You can check the ownership of your domain name by going to a "Whois" database. We use www.BetterWhois.com. You may have to enter a security code which will be provided by the Whois.

You should be able to see Domain Name's Owner (called the Registrant), the Registrar (the organization that is used to register the Domain Name), when it was registered and for how long and also the Status. For security's sake the Status should be "Register-Lock" which will prevent someone from fraudulently transferring your Domain Name.

Another important thing to find out from your Webmaster is if your Domain Name is in an account under your name, and what the Username and Password is. Be sure that it is in your contract that the Webmaster will not change the Username and Password without your written consent. You also need to know WHERE the files for your website are hosted as well as the Username and Password to access or change these files (which may be different from your Domain Name password).

So the question for you is: Who owns your logo or other website artwork and who owns your Domain Name?

Steve Freedman of Archer Strategic Alliances develops business websites and Search Engine Optimization. He is the author of a PC Security eBook "Help! Something's Got Hold of My Computer and It Won't Let Go!" available at http://www.HelpProtectMyComputer.com.

Why Do I Need A Website

Writen by Alan Cole

• Cost Effective Advertising.
• Online selling.
• Increased geopgraphic range.
• Wider customer base.
• Efficient marketing.
• Improved customer support.
• Succesful market research.
• Customer feedback.

Just a few of the reasons why your business or organisation, however small, can benefit from having a professional web presence.

Your web site can be viewed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by anyone with a connection to the internet, anywhere in the World. With more and more people using the internet as their main method of researching and obtaining goods and services this is a potential market you can't afford to ignore. In fact, many people obtain nearly all of the goods and services they need almost exclusively from the internet. This means that if you don't have a web site, you are losing business to those forward thinking companies that do.

A website can be many things. In its simplest form it could be a single page advertisement, similar to one you would print in a newspaper or magazine, except that it would be available all day every day. A more useful website would consist of a few pages describing your business / organisation and informing potential customers of the products or services you offer. This can be coupled with contact information and a direct e-mail link so that your customers can easily request more information should they need it. More complex sites can contain an unlimited amount of additional information, can have complete online catalogues of the products you offer and even allow customers to order and purchase products from you online.

Some websites can even offer facilities and functionality that are not available via any other medium. A well designed website brings customers to you and brings you closer to your customers, opening up new opportunities for your business and providing your customers with the service they deserve. It is an ideal way of enhancing the service you provide.

Alan Cole runs Pixelwave Design, a one-person web design studio. His aim is to provide cost effective website design production and maintenance by offering professional web solutions that stand out from the crowd.

Pixelwave Design specialise in conformable, search engine friendly and accessible websites.

info@pixelwave.co.uk

Building Your Business Through Content

Writen by R.G. Srinivasan

The usefulness of internet is because of its rich and varied content. The more valuable the content more would be the success on the web. People are online in search of useful and quality information. Everyone here is looking for current valuable information that can make their own work and life better.

Search engines too are a big success because of the way they organize information by keywords, popularity of a site and freshness of the content.

If you want your online business to be successful then you must focus on improving the quality of the content in your site to win customers and business.

Here are some key steps to improve your website content.

Keep the layout simple. Focus more on words than flashy graphics. Graphics can keep your visitors only for moments. Words and written content can keep them longer.

Words and phrases alone cannot sustain the interest of the visitor. You may adapt attention grabbing words and be witty or aggressive. But the interest is sustained by substance behind the words. Research well your subject matter then start writing. If you have personally experience what you are writing about, it has more credibility.

Presenting what you know is the major key to successful online presence. Learn to write what you know in a credible manner avoiding fancy words and jargons. Keep it straight and simple. Keep the paragraphs short. Avoid long sentences. Use numbers and bullets so that space is created between paragraphs and bullets giving relief and rest to the eyes.

Learning to write effectively is important. You need not be a great writer. But the information must be presented interestingly and comprehensively. The headline and opening paragraph should grab the reader interest or the next website is only a click away.

Keep your website or blog fresh with original new content rather than copy paste and linked paragraphs to free contents from other websites. This would also help search engines to rank you higher.

Content can really create a world of difference to an online entrepreneur. Check the most successful websites including this site and you would find the prime reason for its success is the excellent content.

R.G. Srinivasan is a managerial professional, Writer and Author. He writes a regular blog on management thoughts with interesting articles, resources, personal experiences and links useful for practicing managers at http://management-thoughts.blogspot.com

Pushy Popups Shown The Dumpster Er The Door

Writen by Robert Blanc

It's an acknowledged fact that internet users, by and large, and especially those who shop online, are savvy, and becoming increasingly so with each passing day. But what is less acknowledged, mostly to the detriment of advertisers and sellers pushing their wares, is that they're also fed-up with the petty annoyances that obstruct their direct path to the information and products they seek. Whereas previously these internet devotees merely shrugged aside that which was marketed to them against their will, they now vehemently cleave in twain all which intrudes beyond their Spam filters and Pop-Up blockers.

Their weapon of choice, however, is less gruesome than the previous sentence imagines. Rather the means unto an end (of sites pushing Pop-Ups, that is) relies more upon the speed of their motor reflex skills than the force any show of strength might level with a mighty blow. Simply put, as clickly… I mean, as quickly as Pop-Ups pop in, float down, or follow a scroll like some scraggily stray mutt, internet enthusiasts flick their click, and click, click away not only the Pop-Up but the collaborating site that allowed the Pop-Up to slip in through the backdoor.

As much as email users distrust unsolicited email, i.e. Spam, so do the majority of internet addicts distrust not only Pop-Ups, but also the sites that make the mistake of utilizing them as a principal marketing technique. Research already demonstrates that internet users make final aesthetic decisions about a website's worthiness, either yea or nea, a mere 1/20th of a second after it fully loads on the browser. First impressions are, for better or worse, everything online. Digging deeper, such research increasingly demonstrates that Pop-Ups, once even a staple in AOL's, Amazon's, and eBay's advertising arsenals, are primary culprits torpedoing a site's potential for providing a visitor with a pleasing aesthetic experience. The result: 1/20th of a second after a condemning judgment passes against those websites bearing Pop-ups, the clicking finger is already in motion, clicking closed every conspiring window.

If you, as a seller, have a legitimate product—i.e. something you believe in and trust for your personal use as much as you desire a buyer to trust in and use it—than why sacrifice such confidences in the eyes (with synapses constantly firing with the mind) of said buyer by harboring an immediate and lasting distrust. Nothing, in fact, negates your chances of closing a sale with more finality than creating suspicion as to the legitimacy of the claims you make about your product. And, if, rather than even making claims, you immediately attempt to incite shoppers to buy, than in all likelihood, you in turn incite them to find fulfillment of their needs elsewhere.

An online marketing expert I know recently likened the sharp decline in the effectiveness of Pop-Up advertising to the negative reactions people have toward someone who goes door to door proselytizing. She said, "the first time a proselytizer knocks on your door, you greet them, perhaps with confusion, but nonetheless amicably. You smile as they preach, you accept their literature, and sometimes you even invite them beyond the threshold and offer them something to drink.

Maybe you consider their pitch, but 99 times out of 100 you're secure enough in you're beliefs, you're not looking for answers, or you simply don't trust them, and when they've gone you dismiss their pitch and forget their person. Not long after, they, or another of their ilk, knocks again.

Maybe this time its on the weekend, your one chance to sleep in; or maybe you've just stepped out of the shower; or sat down to dinner with your family; regardless, the last thing you want in any of these moments is to be interrupted, told to change who you are, and commit yourself to a new product (in the case of the proselytizer, their specific brand of religion). You dismiss them a little more abruptly this time. But, not getting the subtle, harsher tone behind your seemingly pleasant excuses, they keep coming, always with the same thing you don't want or need, regardless of whether you share their beliefs or not.

Finally you reach the point where enough is enough. You slam the door in their face. That," she says, "like the door to door proselytizer, is the fate Pop-Up advertising has brought upon itself. It's been shown the door once and for all, and if internet users could, they would surely show it the dumpster instead."

Her analogy, is no doubt long, and perhaps not the strongest imaginable—consider substituting telemarketers in place of the proselytizer, or whatever other annoyance you encounter frequently, but wish you encountered never again—but ultimately it speaks the truth of both statistical evidence demonstrating internet users' antipathy and distrust of sites advertising with Pop-Ups and the non-quantifiable negative emotional response such advertising generates. In short, in a world where we demand information—on products, anything really—quickly, without distraction, and only from sources we can rely upon and trust, there isn't space remaining on our computer screens for an extra, uninvited Pop-Up window.

Alas, in this very pitch I turned myself into the proselytizer preaching against the use of Pop-Ups, perhaps in many instances to readers who previously advertised using Pop-Ups with great success. To past success I can only raise a glass in toast—"I commend you good fellow or fair lady"—but it is to the future that I implore you to set your sights. There upon products you believe in, to consumer confidences you wish to earn, cultivate and retain—be they won without overt intrusion, like a cyber handshake, not a Pop-Up window, provoking internet users like a cyber slap in the face.

Copyright 2006, Robert K. Blanc. All Rights Reserved.

Robert Blanc is a frequent traveler and freelance writer, covering current events, niche markets and subjects of personal interest for both online and traditional print publications. Recently enamored by the eBook phenomenon and the booming self-help industry, he regularly turns to http://www.ebookreviews.net to begin his searches for the latest information and eBooks currently on the market.

Art Artists And The Web Part 3what To Put On An Artists Website

Writen by Mary Baker

What to put your the website if you are an artist.

1) The art work

Try and think like a gallery hanging a show. Would a gallery put 20 paintings of an artist's art work on one wall? No, because the visitor would be completely confused and not be able to focus on any one painting. The same rule applies to artist's websites. If you cram 20 pictures on one page the Web visitor will move on. Feature a few paintings on each page.

The opposite is also true. Do not put only a few pictures on your artist website. There is nothing more frustrating than finding an artist that you like on the Web and not being able to see a representational body of work.

2) Background color

Background color on a website is just as important as it is in a gallery. White, light gray, cream are all safe colors. Black can be very dramatic way to highlight paintings, however, black makes text almost unreadable. If you use a color, which can be done effectively, make sure that the color works with all your art work and reflects who you are as an artist.

3) Design

Keep it clean, classy and simple. Make sure to visit "Websites That Suck." www. websitesthatsuck.com.

Make sure your artist's website loads quickly; visitors on the Web will not wait, they will leave.

Stay away from all the newest flashy innovations that web designers often like. They usually irritate the visitor and take longer to load.

4) Search engines only read text.

Search engines do not explain how outstanding your art work may be. They only read text. It is very important to have text on your website. The more relevant text the better.

5) Text on a website is different than text in a book or magazine.

All the lessons that apply to "regular" writing do not apply on the Web.

When you are writing text for your website, think bullet points and outline. You want sentences to be short and choppy; phrases work well. Paragraphs should be short. Make your text chatty and do not be afraid to start your sentences with words like "And" or "Because". Writing for the Web is the opposite of what you learned in high school and college.

6) Splash pages are now out.

It used to be that on your Home Page you could put a gorgeous picture of your art work and then move on from that to the rest of your website. This is called a "splash page". Search engines no longer like splash pages. It is now recommended that on your home page you have text explaining what the entire website is about and links to all the major pages.

7) Connect with the visitor.

Just having fabulous pictures of your art work is not enough. A Web visitor will usually visit one or two pages and most likely seldom or never return. It is very important to give the Web visitor a reason to stay on your website as well as to come back. The usual artist's statement is not going to accomplish that.

Tell or show your Web visitor something about you. It could be a picture of your studio, people love to visit studios; information about what inspires you; your technique, if you have an unusual one; a particularly interesting interview with you. Use your imagination

Give away free information. Visitors on the Web love that. There is probably something obvious to you that is big news to your average Web visitor. Share that information with them.

8) Let the visitor know how to contact you.

Make sure the visitor on the Web can contact you as well as your gallery, if a gallery represents you. If the visitor can only contact the gallery, it feels as if the gallery is holding the artist hostage. The Web visitor will move on.

If a gallery is concerned about an artist having an email address of his or her own, there is an easy solution. The person who sends the email gets an automatic reply saying their message has been received. The same email message can be forwarded to both the artist and the gallery, and together they can decide how the email could be answered.

9) Make your website easy to navigate. Make sure that it is easy for a visitor to find his or her way around your website. If a Web visitor finds it the least bit frustrating, they will leave.

© Mary Baker 2005

Mary Baker is a contemporary realist painter, whose studio is in Newburyport, Massachusetts. This New England city, north of Boston, has been the inspiration for the artist's realistic oil paintings. Mary Baker is a professional artist and has shown in New York art galleries.

You can visit Mary at her website, Mary Baker Art, at http://www.marybakerart.com, see her beautiful paintings and read her articles on a variety of subjects including, Art, Artists and Vocation, Creativity, Tips on Breaking the Creative Block , Why Buy Original Art and the four part series on Art, Artists and the Web.

A list of articles can be found on her Site Map and Mary's paintings can be seen on every page of Mary Baker Art.

The One Big Quotsecretquot You Must Know To Make Money Online

Writen by Margaret Albright

So you want a profitable website. You do a search on Google and find 56,293,580 websites that will tell you how to go about creating your business. Everyone promises the moon. You start clicking on links and what do you find?

Everyone wants to sell you something!

Their special ebook that will tell you all the answers. Or, if you buy their software, you will be making money tomorrow. Join their membership website for X amount of dollars per month and you will have all the information you need. RIGHT!

I know how you feel, I searched and searched for that one person or program that would actually help me and not take all my money in the process. I tried to go it alone and built many websites. All of them were failures. So I searched again for the help I needed. I never found the website I was looking for. But I did figure out how to do it.

What did I do?

First I started examining all the websites that were on Google's first search results page. I studied and disected these websites. I tried to look for those few things that all these websites had in common.

Then, I downloaded every free ebook I could get my hands on. The writers of these ebooks were trying to sell me the next big trick but each one had some good, helpful information.

Next I joined 27 newsletters and ezines and spend months reading. Most of these newsletters tried to sell me things too, but they couldn't just send out ads, everyone would quit their newsletter. So in order for these ezine owners to keep their readers, they had to give some valuable free information. I took notes and read some more.

I eventually had an entire notebook full of information. That was when I thought I would try out all this new information so I built a website. I used all the tricks I had learned and in about a month, I made $590.45. Yes, it's true, you can build a profitable website without spending all your savings.

I realize $590.45 doesn't make me a millionaire but it's a good start. I have since built three more websites, all of them bringing in more and more money each month. $590.45 was just a drop in the bucket but you have to start somewhere.

Was it hard? No, not really. I do have to warn you though. It does take work. You don't rent some web space and fill it full of links and make money. It takes time and effort.

If you are still reading this article, there is a good chance that you are one of the few who will succeed. Most people would have stopped reading when I mentioned I was taking notes.

There is one big secret to building a money making website. It really isn't even a secret, it's just the answer you must have or you will never get anywhere. You have to write content. No one will visit your website if you don't have any information for them to read.

Most web surfers don't research topics on the internet looking for things to buy. The purchase, is a by product of a good recommendation from a trusted webmaster. You will have to create your information web site and offer compelling content. Once the visitor believes you actually know what you are talking about, they will probably decide to use your recommendation and make a purchase from your links.

If you can read and write, you can have a profitable website. If you are looking for a get rich quick scheme, you are on the wrong side of the table. The only people who get rich from those schemes are the ones selling them. By the way, what did they do to get you to look at their product? That's right! Even scammers have to write content.

If you are willing to do the time and put in some effort, you can make money. That's the only way to make money online. Don't let anyone tell you different, all they want is your money.

About this Author -- Margaret Albright is the owner of the website Know It All - Affiliates. (http://www.knowitall-affiliates.com/make-money-online.htm). A free, step by step program telling you all you need to know to build a profitable online business.

Copyright 2005 - KnowItAll-Affiliates.com - All Rights Reserved

[Re-print conditions: Please include About this author information with a clickable link to http://www.knowitall-affiliates.com/make-money-online.htm Know It All - Affiliates diligently pursues copyright infringement.]

How To Easily Build A Free Website For 7 Days

Writen by Robert Borhi

Here is a tip that can help you boost your online income, or increase your online presence.

Build your own website!

It's easier than you might think, and you can get started for free as there are many online website builders. And you don't need any html knowledge or know how to use web code, it's all done by drag and drop, cut and paste, or writing your own text.

And it all looks very professional. There are even many pre-made webpage styles to choose from.

Like many others, you may be marketing different affiliate programs or a home business opportunity, or maybe even your own product.

Instead of sending all your traffic to replicated webpages for your affiliate programs, you could build your own webpage and put your affiliate links on there. Then you can send your traffic to one page where they will see all your offers in one place! Here are some ideas on what you can do:

Build a webpage with a home business theme.

Build a webpage with a marketing theme.

Build a webpage with an advertising theme.

For fun, build your own family webpage.

The possibilties are only limited by your imagination.

I have been using an online web page builder for over 3 years now, and it works great. If I get a new idea, I can have a page up and running within minutes. I can make changes to my pages at any time, and it's all done with the online website builder.

You don't even need your own domain name, although you can buy a domain later and 'point' it to your site.

The best thing is, many website builders give you a free trial for about 7 days, so you can test drive the system. Try it out and design your own webpage in minutes. There are almost 1 BILLION people online now, and you can't afford to not have your own website anymore if you are marketing online. If you like how it works, you can usually upgrade and pay a small monthly fee to keep on building. The website hosting industry is very competitive and keeps getting cheaper every year, so there is realy no reason why you shouldn't have your own website up and running today!

It's time to make your mark online!

Robert Borhi is an online marketer who operates http://www.HugeGrowth.com He lives in Nelson, BC, Canada. To learn more marketing tips and tricks, and to get some free advertising, visit his website at: http://www.HugeGrowth.com

Freelance Programming Is Easy To Manage

Writen by Edward Charkow

There are several reverse bid freelance sites out there. Beyond the big ones, smaller ones are popping up each day. With the variety of places for a programmer to go and look for work the review systems in place on these sites don't count for as much as they did at one point in time. If you are thinking about getting a project off the ground and using a freelancer there are some basic rules you should go by.

1.) State your needs clearly and effectively. If you need a programmer to help you write a decent proposal you might want to start off by finding a programmer to talk to. If you understand the technical side of things better you will get better service. I can almost guarantee that.

2.) Talk to the freelancer through the sites private message board. It will give you a chance to see how well they can communicate. Ask some questions that can't have cookie cutter responses. If you are considering freelancers that don't speak the same native tongue as you, you might have some communication problems.

3.) Remember, the ability to program does not give a programmer the insight into your business. While you might know what a down line building reciprocal link morpher with a built in MLM system and a double wide matrix, they may not understand you at all. Make sure you are quite clear and they DO understand you.

4.) Reviews are important, but they are not everything. It's fine to give someone new to the site a shot, as long as you communicate well and you follow the guidelines below.

5.) DO NOT PAY UP FRONT- Use escrow in stages if you must, but just handing someone money that you don't know is sort of silly. It's fair to release funds in stages for a long project. Make sure you get the source code at each release of the escrow as well. Just because they do a good job for the first two stages doesn't mean it will continue.

6.) Make sure they are writing well commented code, a program that needs to be edited or improved upon is much easier with commented code. It will save you money in the long run, especially if this programmer isn't available.

7.) Don't do a project in pieces if you can afford to do it all at once, it just increases the cost dramatically and will frustrate the programmer. Trust me on this one – a frustrated programmer doesn't work as hard.

8.) Consider pricing, you will get bids for almost nothing.....sometimes you get what you pay for. Good programming costs money, and time.

Freelance sites are a great way to get good quality work done, and you can also get the other end of the spectrum – that is cheap and fast low quality. Know what your expectations are, and be realistic with yourself. You can't get a real enterprise level application made for a hundred dollars.

Article written by Ed Charkow. Ed is the webmaster and lead programmer for Stmadeveloper and NicheSiteSpecial.

Reprint rights are available as long as the links in this resource box remain intact and clickable.

Effective Website Content The Top 10 Ideas Thatll Keep Bringing Em Back

Writen by Fiona MacKay Young

1. Information:

The number one seller on the Internet is information.
• Have lots of relevant, free information on your site for your visitors to read, and keep adding more and they'll keep coming back to read it.

2. Top Ten Lists:

Always popular are Top Ten Lists … or Top Seven Lists, or whatever number you can come up with.
• A really good Top List can later be expanded and turned into an e-book.

3. News Articles:

People always like to know what's the latest and greatest.
• Keep them up to date with your company's activities with a news page or article.
• You can also keep them up to date with other happenings in your industry.

4. Interviews:

• A great way to tell your customers how useful your product or service is, is to have interviews with clients, or experts.
• If there is an article in your local paper at any time about you or your business, it can (with permission) be reproduced on your site.
• Or do an interview yourself, with groups or individuals of interest to your target audience and publish it on your website.

5. Publications:

• E-zines, Newsletters, Booklets, Bulletins are all publications.
• Choose what fits best for your site and have the information available, plus an archive past editions.
• Free E-books are also publications much in demand.

6. Information Bites:

• Intersperse short information-bites at appropriate places, and change them regularly.

7. Visual Content:

• Your site should be visually pleasing, but not too complicated.
• Ease of navigation is a visual "tool" often overlooked in many "beautiful" sites.

8. Entertaining Content:

• Keep them coming back for more with any items of fun you can include: unusual quotes, jokes, photos.

9. Excerpts:

• If you are selling a book, as excerpt as long as an entire chapter is a great selling tool. In a bookstore you can look through the book before you buy, this is the internet equivalent.

10. Technology Content:

• The choice is ever expanding
• There are audio clips, streaming video, MP3 files and more coming online by the minute.

Fiona MacKay Young is a Business Startup & Career Consultant with a specialty in Online Promotion. http://www.fiona-online.com offers Free Articles and Internet Marketing & Career Coaching Services and articles. © Fiona MacKay Young 2004 You may copy, publish or distribute this document freely, on condition this tag line and information are included intact.

Keeping Your Website Up To Date

Writen by John Sheridan

How often do you look at your own website?

Website owners are generally so busy running their companies that updating or refreshing their sites is not normally high on their list of priorities. Unfortunately, this oversight can and often does have seriously negative effects on their businesses.

Is the information contained on the site still relevant?

If your chosen daily paper was an exact replica of the previous day's edition, week after week, month after month, it is an absolute certainty that before too long you would stop buying it – the same principle applies to website visitors! If your website content does not change often enough, people will stop looking at it.

Could the look of the site be deterring existing and would-be customers?

A website has only a few seconds to impress a visitor enough to make them want to continue browsing. Unfortunately, there are countless numbers of website owners that are under the illusion that once their sites are up-and-running there is nothing more they need to do to them. This way of thinking is losing them money!

When you neglect your website, you are literally wasting the most effective marketing tool available.

A website is an asset and an investment, so it is extremely important that it is used to its maximum potential. If you have gone to the trouble and expense of having one built it makes good business sense to look after it properly. Periodic assessments of its performance, content and looks will help you to decide how to keep it fresh and interesting.

Would a 'makeover' benefit the site and ultimately the company?

Websites benefit from content changes to refresh their looks and keep visitors interested. Perhaps using more up-to-date images of products or staff photos would work wonders; saying something new with a copy rewrite could also help to regenerate interest in your company's products and services.

Your web designer is your friend.

Taking time to talk to your web designer will be time well spent. Get their opinions on how the site might perform better; ask them how the look can be improved. This is where your designer's help will prove invaluable, contact them – two or three heads are better than one!

There is an old adage that says, 'Out of sight, out of mind.' This is totally true – until what has been put out of sight and mind comes back to bite you! – Ignore your website and it will take revenge by driving customers away, look after it, and it will look after you.

This article is the property of the author and may only be reproduced in its original form.

John Sheridan is a professional proofreader of hard copy items and website copy. He also writes web copy and occasionally accepts small copy-editing assignments. He can be contacted via: http://www.textcorrect.co.uk

The Importance Of Content Adding A Weblog To Your Site

Writen by David Andrew Smith

Continuing my theme of how as a small business you can improve your search engine results. In a previous article I extolled the virtues of article writing and in this one I shall consider the practicalities and usefulness of adding a weblog to your site in order to drive more traffic to your web pages.

I am presuming that you have optimised your site, added numerous pages of content and update or add to that content at least on a weekly basis. All of this I did with our own website but still the search engines only visited the site about every 4 – 6 weeks. So although our content was being added to sometimes on a daily basis I couldn't induce the Google spider in particular to visit the site more often even though I was submitting sitemaps to Google.which informed it of these updates.

I then started reading about the benefits to businesses of having a weblog attached to the site. SEO's were and still do wax lyrical about how search engines just love weblogs. On this basis I decided to give it a go and looked around at the various free blog sites and finally settled on http://www.blogger.com as this site allowed the blog to be integrated into the website and offered a multitude of templates to choose from. So I chose my template and went through the process of integration with the website which is a very simple and easy process to follow. The next step was to start writing the blog. Very quickly I discovered that it was the ideal vehicle for announcing new services, new products and new branch openings as well as informing the readers of our day to day activities and experiences. All of it is excellent content and the SEO's were quite correct in that the search engine spiders do love it. So much so that the googlebot spider visits everyday to update the web pages and the weblog. This now means that when my content changes or new pages are added they are immediately indexed by Google. This has done wonders for the search engine placement of the site.

The second benefit that SEO's talked about was the increased number of links that having a blog would bring in. This part I didn't quite believe as I couldn't see how it would do this. I am still not certain of how and why it does attract links but the truth of the matter is that it does. The articles and the weblog seem to inhabit a world of their own and they certainly take on a life which you have no control over. However the combined effect is to boost your own content, attract search engines to visit your site frequently, increase the number of backlinks to your site and increase the number of visitors. All of which are of tremendous benefit to you as a business.

The latest figures I saw published for the number of businesses with weblogs was only 2%. So all you small businesses out there with a website, get writing articles and add a weblog to your site. Keep that updated, preferably on a daily basis, and you will soon see dramatic effects both on your visitor numbers and your search engine placement.

David Andrew Smith is the owner of Sparkle Cleaning Services a contract cleaning company operating throughout the UK.

Tips To Build Sales Through Trust

Writen by Kim Haas

If you want your business to be profitable, you must establish trust between you and your potential customers. Providing information about yourself and your business will help you establish credibility which translates to trust.

Post Contact Information
You must have your contact information listed on your web site. Your business address, phone number and email address are the most important elements of your contact information. If people can not contact you they will most likely feel uncomfortable and leave your web site.

Provide Company History
How long have you been doing business? If you are selling informational products, what makes you an expert? It doesn't hurt to add some background information about you and your employees (if you have them). This gives the customer the feeling that you are not hiding anything from them because you are, in essence, showing your visitors that you are a real person.

Present a Professional Image
Every customer contact, either through your web site, email, mail correspondence or by telephone must be completely professional. If your website looks as if it were haphazardly thrown up on the net, odds are you won't make many sales.

Display Testimonials
This doesn't mean make up a bunch of nice things about your business or product, slap on some fake name and viola! Instant testimonial. WRONG!! This will only end up doing major damage to your business. Use REAL testimonials written by REAL people.

Give a discount on your product to a few select individuals in exchange for a written testimonial you can use on your site. Ask permission of course before posting their comments and link it to their web site or email address. This will be one of the best references you can provide.

Always Give a Guarantee
When you provide your customers with a guarantee, you will be building trust. Certainly a business that would post "No Guarantees" or "Products As-Is" is going to make the customer feel uneasy and cost you a potential sale. By offering some type of guarantee, you are showing that you stand behind your product. It also gives your customer that warm, fuzzy feeling that they're safe shopping with you.

There are too many scams on the internet and many people have been burned. People are becoming more careful about who they hand over their hard earned cash to and are even more cautious about giving out their credit card information. By making your visitors feel they can trust your company, you will find that more of your visitors turn into buyers.

Kim Haas is a WAHM and Founder of Womans-Net.com, a popular online networking community focusing on working from home and women in business and owner of Article-Host.com To learn more about Kim, visit http://kimberlyhaas.com

Copyright 2005 Kim Haas

Top 5 Reasons To Track Your Website Traffic

Writen by Cherie Davidson

#5 User Satisfaction: Learn what your visitors and site users do and do not like about your site. Using a good reporting service allows you to monitor your pages individually to see what pages are clicked on first, the most popular pages, duration of any given visitor's time viewing a page (visit duration), and what pages send your visitors off your site (exit pages).

Once you have this valuable information, you can make your site more enticing to your specific target audience and keep them at your site longer. You can tailor content for enticement, better sales, offer friendlier information, etc.

When you know for sure what does not work, eliminate it. When you know for sure what works, use it to satisfy your visitors and turn them to repeat customers!

#4 Site Function Improvement: Track and correct any issues or defects you detect within your site. Through good reporting you can monitor for trouble spots page by page. This is where your visitor's browser types, screen resolutions and operating systems become very useful information. Optimize your site to view beautifully for the types of equipment and browser versions that your visitors use. Guesswork is eliminated!

#3 Marketing Effectiveness: Improve your marketing efforts and eliminate wasted time and money. Monitoring your site statistics through a good reporting tool set allows you to see the effectiveness of your keyword work.

This is especially a money-saver for pay-per-click advertising, but just as important for no-cost search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. You can see the list of search engines and Website links that send you visitors; watch the keywords visitors are using to search for you; and see what marketing strategies are not working for you by their lack of linking traffic to your site.

#2 Work Your Business With Accuracy: Understand exactly what your target user wants in your site content, determine your business marketing needs, improve your return on investment (ROI), drive customers to your virtual front door, enhance their experience, and promote a higher rate of repeat customers. Web analytic tools give you the opportunity to "tune in" to your potential prospects and customers as never before. Today's online tools give business owners outstanding -- and instant -- advantages for management and growth, with a greater potential for direct conversion of visits to sales than offline. These are advantages any savvy business owner can not afford to ignore!

And the most basic and important reason ...

#1 Accurately and Dynamically Track Your Traffic: Bottom line is, you have a business Website. You need customers. To get customers, you have to have traffic. All your efforts to capture attention will do you no good if you can not see what works and what is a waste of time. You need to know if you are drawing the right target market to your business. What good is pulling in 15,000 people who are allergic to your product or can not use your service? You know the answer! Web analytic traffic reporting lets you focus your efforts and increase your percentage of buyers within your visitors, and make more sales.

Whether you rely on search engine traffic, press releases, pay per click advertising, banner ads or any other marketing strategy, with a good traffic reporting service, and through the use of Web analytics, you will gain untold advantages. Find new sites that can be potential business partners or affiliations, learn what your visitors want and what will make them stick to your site, track the impact of your promotions and sales leads, click back to the links that come to your site and get a reverse look at your potential customer up close. Web traffic reporting and Web analytics is a true "must have" for today's online businesses. Without this incredible site tool you are only scratching the surface of your Website's potential.

Cherie' Davidson is content and marketing manager for VisiStat.com. VisiStat is a detailed, real-time site traffic and Web analytics report service that is focused on user-friendliness and the goal to help online entrepreneurs make the most of their site marketing and search engine optimization efforts - to be a virtual "goldmine" for marketing. Learn more at http://www.VisiStat.com or write Cherie' at cherie@visistat.com

Use Cgi For Quality Websites

Writen by Kevin Dark

Few people now some of the newer terms used in Internet protocol request and guides. CGI is one of the largest culprits. CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface and deals directly with how and why a website is displayed.

CGI acts as a means for the server where the website is stored to more readily find and display the website. Compared to the HTTPD format that is far more common, CGI is faster and more reliable in every way.

CGI uses smarter technology to bridge the gap between the server and someone trying to access a page. This gap has to do with the way the information is sent back and fourth to properly display the page. CGI acts as a single entity reaching out for the information. While HTTPD sends out several signals that bounce from place to place until the server is located. This is a very random way of locating websites and is the most common reason that a Cannot Find Server message is displayed. There may not be anything wrong with the server or the website itself, but the HTTPD is not functioning properly thereby sending an error message.

CGI takes the number of error messages down to nearly nothing as it is very reliable in finding servers with its single entity type retrieval method. CGI is becoming more widespread as websites tire of visitors being unable to find their site because of an error message being displayed. Using CGI does require a lot of changes to your websites. This is due to the fact that CGI operates on different codes. These codes must be pre-written to ensure that the CGI will be able to function properly. Web design and SEO companies can be of great service in this area. There are many to choose from. You should make sure and do you research and only work with a reputable company that will not embed spy-ware or other malicious data into the codes for your site. This could cause harm to your computer and those of your viewers.

XML is another term that people are having a difficult time understanding as computer nerds all over the world laugh at their ignorance. The concept of XML is simple and complicated all at the same time. Related to HTML, XML deals more with describing information than to displaying it like HTML.

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. Not to be confused, XML does not replace HTML but is designed to complement HTML. XML is designed to structure and describe a website while HTML is used to display the website. XML authors must define their own tags instead of using preset tags that come HTML.

It is believed that XML will be used in the future for all data transmission and manipulation over the web. It is best to learn it now before it becomes used in all applications so that you can get a firm grasp of the concept. There are several sites that feature basic and advanced tutorials on the subject, check them out for some great knowledge. Also keep going back to these websites so that you can keep up to date with all the news on websites and other important information. They might be able to offer you a software package for a discount price. These websites are there to help people like you out. So use them to your advantage.

Kevin Dark is an online marketer. Read more on cgi and xml.

Your Website Reflects Your Business

Writen by Tia Scott

Some left shoes are in isle 5, while the right shoes are in isle 3. Shoe hills are in random places. You can barely walk through the store without stumbling over a shoe.

No employees are in sight. As you are desperate for help, you finally make it past the heaping hill of shoes to the back of the store and find a button that says "Page for Help". You press the button and out comes a card that says "please leave your mailing address, we'll send you a letter". Frustrated, you leave the store, and finally realize there is a Footlocker across the street.

We all know how first impressions can make or break a potential customer's decision to buy. With more and more people discovering the internet, most businesses do not realize that their company website is the customer's first impression.

A Reflection of How You Do Business

Your website should be a reflection of your business. Would you allow your customers to walk through a maze to get your contact information? Do you want to answer your customer's questions or leave them guessing? Do you want them to find your product information? Your website will reflect these answers back to your customer.

What Web Design Isn't

Web Design is not:

• All the Bells and Whistles

• A Tease

• A Get Rich Quick Scheme

All The Bells and Whistles

Would you buy a luxury car that got you ten miles and then died? Then why would you want your website to be the best but unfunctional? Sometimes we forget that having the best of the best of something means to sacrifice something else.

For instance, have you ever seen a website made entirely in Macromedia Flash? ( Click here for more info about flash ) There is nothing wrong with a nicely animated website, however, this will shut out potential customers who do not have, nor wish to install the flash player plug-in. This restricts certain users who have certain plugins installed on their computers, and you don't want to ever shut out potential customers. If you wish to do that, make sure you have a good purpose and make sure you clearly state on your website what those requirements are.

A Tease

It's better to have too much information than too little. Don't expect a potential customer to want to wade through pages to contact you for more information.

If you sell pink shoe laces and neglect to put that information on your website, your potential customer may end up going somewhere else to look for pink show laces. It's too easy to just 'go somewhere else', or 'do another search engine query'.

A Get Rich Quick Scheme

Why Nancy, only fools rush in.

A common misconception I have seen is that business owners believe their website will attract millions of visitors within the first week of creating their website. Without the funds, research and dedicated time, this is simply not true.

The instant you upload your website, it is lost in the millions and billions of virtual pages across the internet. You have to market your website just like you market your business; tell people.

You will not get the keyword you want from search engines, you will not receive millions of visitors, and you will not sell all your products within the first week.

However, if you take the time to do your research, study internet marketing, spread your website via word of mouth, and design careful search engine placement; you CAN get the keyword you want, you CAN receive millions of visitors and you CAN sell all your products.

What Web Design Is

Web Design is:

• A Sales Tool

• A Cost Efficient Expansion of Your Business

• A Community Service

A Sales Tool

You can think of your website as a brochure. We have an attractive image on the front that says "open me, you know you want to". Inside we have product information, company information, contact information, and reasons why the potential customer should choose you.

With happy thoughts, the potential customer now turns into the buying customer because your website reflected the everlasting impression of what your business is.

A Cost Efficient Expansion of Your Business

Imagine being able to keep your store open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Imagine being able to sell products and services in your sleep. Imagine being able to sell to anyone, anywhere, to whatever region you want. Sounds nice doesn't it?

This is what your website should be providing for you. Hiring a web designer, paying monthly web hosting space, and purchasing a yearly domain name costs a fraction of what it does if you were to open several locations around the world.

This tell the customer "We provide options for you.". Imagine how grateful someone in a wheelchair would be if they didn't have to have someone drive them to your business to shop around, or what if they were bedridden and couldn't leave their homes at all?

A Community Service

What better way to say "I love you" than to bring people together. This is another way you can use your website to reflect your business. A community focused business website brings your customers together who have similar interest and who feel warm and fuzzy inside for finding a group of people just like them.

For instance, ecademy.com is a perfect example of a community focused website. It's exciting to wake up, check your email and get a personal message from a fellow networker. You can start more focused interest clubs, you can write articles. You feel apart of something.

What A Web Developer Isn't

• A Miracle Worker

• A One Service Provider

• A Lazy Bum

A Miracle Worker

Beware of web designers who make promises they cannot keep. A web developer's failure to live up to his/her promises will more than likely hurt your website, which in return can hurt your business image. Let's take a search engine such as Google.com as an example. Google.com plays by their own rules that web developers cannot control, only abide by. A web developers promise to get you in #1 spot for the keyword "shoe" is almost impossible. There are some people who will result to measures that are against Google.com policy, to make you think you've reached that #1 spot. Keyword spamming, url spoofing, keyword hiding, to name a few. Resulting to these measures will make your site look unprofessional and get you banned from Google.com.

A One Service Provider

You shouldn't have to shop in ten different locations to create your website. This will lead to ten different levels of quality. For example, if you have to hire a graphic designer for the graphical layout, then a programmer for the shopping cart, and a writer for the content; if each professional isn't on the same thinking page about your company, it will be evident.

A Lazy Bum

A good Web Design Professional isn't willing to cut corners if it means sacrificing the quality of your online presence. This includes, but not limited to: search engine preparing, content management and research, information placement, programming and more. If your web developer slacks on any of these issues, your website will show it.

What A Web Developer Is

• A Solutions Provider

• A Consultant

• A Fast Learner

A Solutions Provider

You deserve a web developer in tune to your business needs and who understands how your website effects the image you are trying to create. The Developer should be able to provide many, if not all the resources available to complete your website from start to finish, or know the correct people who can.

A Consultant

You should feel confident asking your web developer questions and confident that you'll receive answers.

A Fast Learner

More than likely, your web developer will be alien to your industry of business. He/She should know how to research information related to your business and how to implement it into your website.

The Science of Information Placement

And last, but certainly not least is the science of information placement. This is simply knowing what information you want your customers to see and in what order.

For example, the first place a user focuses on the majority of the time when they first visit a website, is whatever is in the middle of the screen. This will be where you want to put your most important information, or sales niche. This isn't where you want to put your lengthy sales agreements and contract information.

Conclusion

The first impression you want to give your potential customer is that you are qualified to deliver what they need and how they need it, better than your competition. The more time they spend on your website trying to come up with those reasons, the more that potential customer is slipping away. We want to close that sale as soon as possible.

Your website reflects your business in the way it is ran, the products it provides, and how it treats its customers. Make sure that first impression is the correct one!

Tia Scott is CEO of Client Centers, LLC, an internet and graphic service business based in Florida since 2000. She also runs and maintains http://www.nerdbyte.com

Tia Scott
CEO
Client Centers, LLC
http://www.clientcenters.com
http://www.nerdbyte.com

35 Revenue Increase From Your Website

Writen by Glenn Murray

2 Golden Rules for an Engaging Website

35% of visitors fail to achieve their goal when they visit company websites! By following 2 simple rules, you can increase your web-derived revenue by 1/3 or more!

Renowned website usability researcher, Jakob Nielsen, today (Nov 24) published results of his latest study. His test subjects used 139 websites. On average, they failed to find what they were looking for 35% of the time. Shockingly, 37% of users couldn't even find company location details!

What was surprising was that users didn't give up. They generally found the information they were after – but they found it at a competitor's site!

So how do you stop potential customers falling into the hands of your competitors? Nielsen is right when he suggests user research. Yes, it's imperative that know what your users need at your site. But what he doesn't say is how to structure your website so it meets users' needs.

There are two golden rules:

1) Write first, build later

2) Write to your customer

Write first, build later

The real message on most websites is in the writing. It makes sense, then, that the writing should determine the structure.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for most businesses. For them, the writing is an afterthought. They structure and design their website first, then try to fit the writing to the structure. This flies in the face of common sense. When you speak to someone, you structure your speech around your message. You don't decide on a structure, then change the message to suit!

For a truly usable website, you need to plan what you want to say before you create the site – perhaps even write the whole thing. The message – the writing – should determine the structure.

Write to your customer

So how do you decide what to write?

Firstly, don't think, "What do I want to say?". When you're writing a website, you have to think, "What does my customer want to know?". It's a very subtle difference, but it's the key to engaging writing. And that's what you want to do… engage the customer.

Most customers will want to know the basics:

• What do you do?
• What benefit do you offer them?
• Why should they choose your service or product?
• Why should they choose your service or product and not your competitors'?
• What does it cost?
• How can they contact you?
• Where are you located?

Your website has to communicate a lot of information. And to make matters worse, you're going to have limited screen real-estate. Ideally, your customer won't have to scroll – especially on your homepage (all your information will fit within a single window). And you can't fill the whole screen with writing, either. The design and navigation elements take up about a third of the window, and you should leave a bit for white space (you don't want to overwhelm your customer). As a rule of thumb, you should expect to have about 1/3 – ½ of the window at your disposal for the writing.

Chances are, right now you're thinking, "How am I going to fit it all in?". Well, that's where your writing skills come in. Choose your words very carefully…

Websites can be an extremely powerful piece of marketing collateral. You can reach millions for just a few hundred dollars. Unfortunately, your competitors can do the same thing. It's a level playing field, but there are a lot of players. It's important that your thoughts are structured, otherwise your site will be a mess. If your message is clear, your site will be simple and easy to use. It's all in the words…

8 More Reasons to Write for Your Audience…

1) There are approximately 550 billion documents on the web

2) Every day another 7 million are added

3) Workers take so long trying to find information that it costs organisations $750 billion annually! (A.T. Kearney, Network Publishing study, April 2001)

4) Reading from a monitor is 25% slower than reading from paper. (Sun Microsystems, 1998)

5) Helpful content develops site loyalty. The average person visits no more than 19 websites in the entire month in order to avoid information overload. (Nielsen NetRatings in Jan 2001)

6) 79% of users scan read when online (Sun Microsystems, 1998)

7) Information gathering is the most common use of the Internet - 73% (American Express survey, 2000)

8) 48% of people use the Internet to find work-related information as opposed to 7% who use magazines. (Lyra Research, 2001)

* Glenn Murray is an SEO copywriter and article submission and article PR specialist. He is a director of article PR company, Article PR, and also of copywriting studio Divine Write. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit www.DivineWrite.com or www.ArticlePR.com for further details, more FREE articles, or to download his FREE SEO e-book.