Better Website Development: August 2008

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

What Your Customers Say About Your Site Part 1

Writen by Chris Everson

The following is a list of patterns that many visitors follow, and you can use these suggestions to better your site.

1. Your visitors often stay for less than 30 seconds. This is a very bad sign! There are a multitude of solutions for this. Often when a visitor leaves that fast, it's because something almost "forced" her (the average e-consumer is in fact a woman!) to leave. Frequent causes of this are ugly sites! I use the term ugly because many ugly sites are bringing in more money than you can imagine, but truley ugly sites, or ones with very hard to read / obnoxious text will force a visitor away.

Your site may load far too slow! If your site loads slower than 20 seconds, you are literally driving away a third of your traffic. By the time the rest of the traffic gets there, they will be fearful of clicking a link because the same load times may apply there too!

Improper image loading or garbled code can also apply, but another factor is AD clutter! AD clutter is when you have simply too many ads in comparison with actual content. If people think your site is selling a product so awful that you have to rely on mounds of ads to survive, then they won't be ready to buy from you!

2. Your links get more traffic than your content pages! See reason one for possible solutions, as this trend often means that your links are looking more promising than the rest of your site to your visitors!

3. Your visitors hardly ever return! This one is harder to fix, but just as important as the ones earlier. If you can at all, give away a free product or sample in exchange for an email address, and use that adress for follow up emails, to keep the visitor aware of your services.

Many potential customers won't come back because they don't have a reason too! Update your site with meaningful information, or considering adding a messageboard/forum.

That's all for now, see part 2 for more information!

Mark Shay and Chris Everson
http://www.TheRealIncome.com ~REAL residual income

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Maintaining Your Website

Writen by Tim Priebe

Contrary to what some believe, a web site should definitely not be set up and then forgotten. Over time, information about your company can and will change. If your website remains unchanged, the world will pass it by. A website is not a one-time investment, but something to be cultivated and maintained.

Whether you do the maintenance on your site yourself or have someone else do it for you, you still need to personally review the write-ups on your website every month or two to ensure that they remain accurate. It often helps to get someone else to look at it with you. You may look at it so often that you overlook something, where the other person may see it immediately.

In addition to reviewing the write-up of the site, also make sure that all the links are working. Make sure that they go to the page that you intended them to go to. If they do not, you may need to do a little hunting to find out where they should link to now. Remember, Google and other search engines can help a lot in this process. And if comes down to it, rework that page's content so that the link is not required.

Remove content for events that have long since passed. Keep all the pages with dates on them current. Those types of pages should be checked more often than your other pages.

Also, make sure any forms or other custom programming on your website continues to work. Although any web programs will likely remain unchanged, server upgrades can often cause those programs to no longer work in the way the programmer originally intended. As a frequent programmer myself, I can attest to that.

Finally, make sure you check for any broken images. Hopefully all the images on your site are hosted by you, which can decrease the chance of that happening. Still, you need to make sure that all of the images are there.

Again, even if you have someone else perform the actual work on your site, you are the one that knows your company best. You should be the one checking the site on a regular basis to make sure all information is up-to-date.

Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Why A Css Website Layout Will Make You Money

Writen by Trenton Moss

Although CSS layouts have been around for years, they haven't become so commonplace until recently. This was basically due to limited browser support (especially from Netscape 4) - nowadays though, CSS 2.0 (which introduced positioning) is compatible with over 99% of browsers out there (check out the browser stats over at http://www.thecounter.com/stats/2004/August/browser.php).

So, why should you convert your website from its current table-based layout to a CSS layout? It'll make you money. Simple really. And here's four reasons to explain why:

Reduced bandwidth costs

Web pages using CSS for layout tend to have much smaller file sizes than those using tabular layouts. It's not unusual to see reductions of 50% or more in file size when switching from CSS to tables. Smaller file sizes obviously mean reduced bandwidth costs, which for high traffic sites can mean enormous savings.

The main reason for this dramatic decrease in file size is that presentation information is placed in the external CSS document, called up once when the homepage loads up and then cached (stored) on to the user's computer. Table layouts on the other hand, place all presentation information inside each HTML, which is then called up and downloaded for every page on the site.

Additionally, CSS can be used to replace JavaScript image rollovers, again allowing a large reduction in overall page size. See the article, CSS navigation menu for more on this (http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/css/css-navigation-menu.shtml).

A higher search engine ranking

A CSS-based website will appear higher in the search engine rankings for three reasons:

- The code is cleaner and therefore more accessible to search engines

- Important content can be placed at the top of the HTML document

- There is a greater density of content compared to coding

A higher search engine ranking means more site visitors, which, provided your website is usable, should lead to an increase in enquiries or sales.

Faster download speed

A faster download speed will make you money? Well, yes. Slow download speed is often cited as one of the biggest usability complaints for websites. A faster download speed therefore leads to increased usability, and a web usability redesign can increase the sales/conversion rate by 100% (source: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030107.html).

CSS downloads faster than tables because:

- Browsers read through tables twice before displaying their contents, once to work out their structure and once to determine their content

- Tables appear on the screen all in one go - no part of the table will appear until the entire table is downloaded and rendered

- Tables encourage the use of spacer images to aid with positioning

- CSS generally requires less code than cumbersome tables

- All code to do with the layout can be placed in an external CSS document, which will be called up just once and then cached (stored) on the user's computer; table layout, stored in each HTML document, must be loaded up each time a new page downloads

- With CSS you can control the order items download on to the screen - make the content appear before slow-loading images and your site users will definitely appreciate it

Increase in reach

The more people you can reach, the more visitors you'll get to your site and the more enquiries or sales you should get. A CSS-based website is compatible with PDAs, mobile phones, in-car browsers and WebTV. Don't underestimate the importance of this: In 2008 alone an estimated 58 million PDAs will be sold (source: http://www.etforecasts.com/pr/pr0603.htm) and one third of the world's population will own a wireless device (source: http://www.clickz.com/stats/markets/wireless/article.php/10094_950001).

You can make an additional CSS document specifically for handheld devices, which will be called up in place of the regular CSS document, thereby ensuring your website is accessible to this lucrative market. This isn't possible with a tabular layout.

Conclusion: Switch to CSS!

Switching your website from a table layout to a CSS layout can be a long, arduous process, especially for large websites. Given the money making possibilities though, it could very well prove to be well worth it.

This article was written by Trenton Moss. He's crazy about web usability and accessibility - so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy ( Webcredible - http://www.webcredible.co.uk ) to help make the Internet a better place for everyone. They offer fantastic accessibility & CSS support packages, which you can read all about at http://www.webcredible.co.uk/support .

Sunday, August 24, 2008

50 Ways To Use Your Website

Writen by Henriette Martel-Lawson

A website is the most versatile and cost-effective marketing tool on the market. It is also an investment. After all, you are building a shopfront. In a nutshell, you can use your website to:

Enhance your professional image
1. Look professional and as BIG as large corporations.
2. Pre-sell yourself to new clients even before you meet them.
3. Supply a meaningful and intuitive address related to your type of service. It is easier to remember www.marketingcues.com rather than a long ISP email address such as www.yourInternetServiceProvidername.com/~marketingcues.
4. Provide a permanent address with up-to-date contact details and opening hours. You can change Internet Service Provider or move physical premises and your customers will always find you and your marketing efforts are not lost.

Boost confidence in your business
5. Demonstrate your knowledge and expertise with tips, articles and editorials.
6. Build your credibility by displaying awards and providing testimonials.
7. Encourage potential clients. A free web hosting address can look dubious and show less commitment to your business.
8. Give staff details to humanise your business, to show that you are "real" people.
9. Provide background information on your business.

Provide current and useful information
10. Publish a catalogue or portfolio of your products and services.
11. Inform your visitors about the benefits and applications of your products.
12. Categorise information according to target audiences. For example, discuss benefits of a dishwasher to potential buyers and give installation instructions to installers.
13. Arrange table of comparisons of product specifications and prices to help your client's decision making.
14. Publish a newsletter.
15. List upcoming products, services, events.

Increase sales
16. Sell directly to customers without middlemen.
17. Take orders when clients are ready.
18. Generate extra income with affiliate programs and sponsorships.
19. Sell advertising space eg banners.
20. Provide enrolment forms and applications for membership.

Save on operational costs
21. Open your shopfront extended hours - 24 hours a day, 365 days a year - at no extra cost.
22. Produce high-impact online coloured brochures that would be too expensive to print.
23. Save printing and mailing costs on newsletters, brochures and reports.
24. Update information regularly without incurring printing costs.
25. Save time on phone calls by providing answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ).
26. Advertise your job vacancies.
27. Shorten your sales cycle by streamlining your operations.

Expand your client base.
28. Expand your reach to new global markets.
29. Collect names and addresses using viral marketing eg "Tell a friend".
30. Send special reports to visitors who provide you with their contact details.
31. Link with suppliers, clients or complementary businesses to attract more traffic to your website.
32. Increase client base with special offers and newsletter subscriptions.

Implement promotional activities
33. Link offline and online advertising and promotion to feed on each other.
34. Use email marketing and save on direct mailing costs.
35. Experiment with new promotional ideas and measure their effectiveness.
36. Create loyalty programs for repeat clients eg vouchers, special offers.

Create a favourable public image
37. Provide a list of links to promote your partners and associations.
38. Promote your community spirit and involvement.
39. Publicise your environmentally friendly practices.
40. Provide a press media kit.

Improve your level of customer service
41. Display your policies and warranties.
42. Maintain visibility with regular email invitations to view new online information or promotion.
43. Provide a user guide with a trouble-shooting section.
44. Allow your customers to view and change their account details and pay invoices.
45. Improve your after-sales service with follow ups and feedback forms.
46. Archive information. You can make available past issues of newsletters and user guides of dated products.

Obtain information for market research
47. Collect information from visitors (eg age group, preferences).
48. Gather information from suggestion forms to develop new products or improve existing ones.
49. Test and evaluate new products without spending big dollars.
50. Use surveys to obtain primary data for researches and reports.

Marketing Cues extra tip
Use multiple domain (or subdomain) names to differentiate products and services, measure promotion effectiveness and attract more traffic to your website. For example, www.product1.com, www.product2.com and www.service1.com could all point towards the same website.

Henriette Martel-Lawson, author of "200 Marketing Ideas for Your Website", is a website strategist who helps businesses develop or convert a stale website into an effective marketing tool. Henriette is the founder of Marketing Cues, an internet marketing resource centre providing articles, reviews, free tools and lots of tips. Receive a free ebook when you subscribe to bimonthly WEBmarketingcues newsletter at http://www.marketingcues.com

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Redirect Web Visitors By Country Using Net Framework In C Or Vbnet

Writen by Ivy Tang

There are times when it is useful to redirect a visitor to different default web page based on the visitor's country of origin. One practical usage is to redirect visitor to web page with the language recognized by the visitor.

This article shows you how by using .NET component, it can be done.

Let us take a simple case study. Company XYZ is multi-national company with major customers from United States and Japan. The company official website is developed in both English and Japanese languages. The default page is in English language and visitor can switch to Japanese by changing the default language option. There exists a potential problem when a Japanese visitor does not understand English and it could not navigate the web site. So let us develop a simple solution to help Company XYZ redirecting all Internet traffic from country Japan to the Japanese language site. Meanwhile it drives the rest traffic to English site.

In this example, we use a fully functional IP2Location™ .NET component available at http://www.ip2location.net/download/IP2LocationDotNetComponent.ZIP to query country by visitor's IP address. Firstly, install the IP2Location™ .NET component. The IP2Location™ .NET component will be installed in your local drive. Next, get the IP2Location.DLL .NET component and sample database from the directory, ie. c:Program FilesIP2Location by default. You need to add a reference to this component from your Visual Studio web project. A copy of this component will be copied into /bin directory under the project. For unregistered component, there is a random 5-second delay in one out of ten queries.

Let's assume the English web page as index_en.htm and Japanese web page as index_jp.htm. We implement a simple script default.asp to detect visitor's country of origin. If the visitor is from Japan, then redirect him/her to index_jp.htm, otherwise index_en.htm. Simple? Here is the code and the comments serve as explanation default.asp.

Sample Codes in VB.NET Webform ------------------------------

Imports IP2Location Private Sub Query(ByVal strIPAddress As String)

Dim oIPResult As New IP2Location.IPResult

Try

If strIPAddress <> "" Then

IP2Location.Component.IPDatabasePath = "C:\Program Files\IP2Location\Database\IP-COUNTRY.SAMPLE.BIN"

oIPResult = IP2Location.Component.IPQuery(strIPAddress)

Select Case oIPResult.Status

Case "OK"

If oIPResult.CountryShort = "JP" Then

' Visitor is from Japan

' Redirect the URL to index_jp.htm

Response.Redirect("index_jp.htm")

Else

' Visitor is not from Japan

' Redirect the URL to index_en.htm

Response.Redirect("index_en.htm")

End If

Case "EMPTY_IP_ADDRESS"

Response.Write("IP Address cannot be blank.")

Case "INVALID_IP_ADDRESS"

Response.Write("Invalid IP Address.")

Case "MISSING_FILE"

Response.Write("Invalid Database Path.")

End Select

Else

Response.Write("IP Address cannot be blank.")

End If

Catch ex As Exception

Response.Write(ex.Message)

Finally

oIPResult = Nothing

End Try End Sub

Sample Codes in C# Webform -------------------------- Using IP2Location; private void Query(string strIPAddress) {

IPResult oIPResult = new IP2Location.IPResult();

try

{

if (strIPAddress != "")

{

IP2Location.Component.IPDatabasePath = "C:\Program Files\IP2Location\Database\IP-COUNTRY.SAMPLE.BIN"; oIPResult = IP2Location.Component.IPQuery(strIPAddress);

switch(oIPResult.Status.ToString())

{

case "OK":

if (oIPResult.CountryShort == "JP") {

Response.Redirect("index_jp.htm")

} else {

Response.Redirect("index_en.htm")

}

break;

case "EMPTY_IP_ADDRESS":

Response.Write("IP Address cannot be blank.");

break;

case "INVALID_IP_ADDRESS":

Response.Write("Invalid IP Address.");

break;

case "MISSING_FILE":

Response.Write("Invalid Database Path.");

break;

}

else

{

Response.Write("IP Address cannot be blank.");

}

catch(Exception ex)

{

Response.Write(ex.Message);

}

finally

{

oIPResult = null;

} }

Compile and upload this project to the web site. All visitors will go through this screening before redirect to an appropriate web page.

Hexasoft Development Sdn. Bhd. (645996-K)
1-2-15 Mayang Mall Complex,
Jalan Mayang Pasir 1,
11950 Bandar Bayan Baru,
Penang, Malaysia.
URL: http://www.ip2location.net

{ sales@ip2location.com }

Friday, August 22, 2008

Tips To Protect Your Downloads Or Products

Writen by Radhika Venkata

1. Upload robots.txt file in to your root directory and include the folder name where you set your downloads.

More information on how to set robots.txt: http://www.webmasters-central.com/wp/se/robotstxt.shtml

2. Set the permission of the download folder to 711 OR upload an index file to that folder. This makes that folder web inaccessible.

For example create a folder named 'test'. Usually by default it will be chmoded to 755 or 777. Put some files like test.htm, test1.htm.

Now you type the URL of the folder - yourdomain.com/test/

What will you see? You will see the folder /test with its files in it. Now upload an index file or chmod the folder to 711. Now access the URL. You will see index file or permission denied error.

3. Name the download folders something like 'CDf54eS'. Not like 'downloads' or 'products' etc.

4. If your customer downloads your product once and don't need or don't have to access to your folder then you can set his access to expire for certain days.

For this you need a cgi script that controls your members access based on days, ip address or number of accesses. http://www.scripts4webmasters.com/ipppro/index.html This script also protects your thankyou.html pages and expires them after certain time.

5. If you have a membership site and you need to stop password abuse or sharing you can use scripts like:

http://www.scripts4webmasters.com/macpro.shtml

http://www.monster-submit.com/sentry/

6. Protect your download links: Like if you keep ...domain.com/downloads/product.zip, everybody knows the download URL. You can use cgi scripts that discloses the download path. http://www.cgi-scripting.com/downloader.shtml

7. If you use If you are selling ebooks, you can use password protection to your ebooks. Once your ebook is protected, after your buyer downloads it, you can send it to him to open the ebook.

Some ebook compilers with this password protection features:

http://www.ebookeditpro.com/

http://www.ebookcreator.com/

About The Author

Radhika Venkata - Subscribe to 'EbookBiz Magazine' which is completely focused on ebook business and Internet Marketing. Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights every month!

http://www.ebooks-world.com/freetosell.shtml

Webmaster Resources: List Your product, ezine or web site free! http://www.webmasters-central.com/

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Create Your Own Download Linkls

Writen by Mark Meshulam

One of the great features of working with the web is the ability to download a file by clicking on a link. As most earthlings know, a link is most frequently visible as blue underlined text displayed on a website, or on an HTML email. Links can also be presented as hot spots on an image, or a button which can be clicked.

Sometimes when we click on links, we are magically transported to a new web page. Behind the scenes, we are actually receiving new files from a web server, and our browser software is "rendering" the files on our screen according to instructions contained in the files.

These new files could be served up by the same web server which served up the previous page, or with equal ease we could be receiving files from a totally different location, possibly from halfway around the world! Such are the wondrous ways of the web.

Other times when we click on links, we get a different experience. Our browser offers to download a file and patiently awaits our answer. When we accept and possibly tell our browser where to file the download, the web server sends the file to our computer and a download takes place.

The usefulness of this functionality is obvious. We don't always want to see the information painted on our screen, sometimes we just want to use it. Consider a spreadsheet file as an example.

If I want to share my spreadsheet with you, I can easily send it to you as an email attachment, but what happens if the file is too large? Chances are, your file attachment could hit a bottleneck somewhere in your, or your recipient's email system and may never deliver.

However, if I send the file as a download, email system bottlenecks are bypassed and the pipe is wide open. Here's how it works:

1. First, I upload my large file to a web server somewhere.
2. Then, I place a download link to that file in my email to my pal.
3. When he receives the email, he either clicks on the link or pastes it into the address bar of his browser.
4. He easily downloads the file.
5. He is incredibly impressed.

To do this, here is what you will need:
1. Rights to a web server to host your file - many web hosting companies offer this.
2. Software for uploading your file - for starters you can actually use Windows Explorer.
3. Knowledge of the correct "path", or URL which will allow your recipient to access the file. This should be available from your web hosting company.

The format of the URL will look like this:
http://www.domain.com/downloads/myspreadsheet.xls
Where "domain" is the domain you have registered for your use, which is targeted at a folder on a web server, which has a subfolder named, for example, "downloads". Your example filename, in this case, "myspreadsheet.xls" should match the actual filename exactly. Filenames should not have spaces or odd punctuations.

In case the above steps seem too intimidating or labor intensive, there is a software/webhosting package available called Personal FTP (www.poingo.com).

The software uploads your large files to your private webspace on the Personal FTP server, opens a new email, and places a download link onto the email, all in a few clicks. In addition, you get your own subdomain, which not only adds your identity to the link, but also enhances the reliability of the download.

Mark Meshulam offers: hotkey screen grabs and keyboard shortcuts, email ticker reminder system, and send large files with FTP using download links.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Web Development Terminology How To Know What Your Design Team Is Talking About

Writen by Sherry Holub

Hosting and Domain: Most people do know about web hosting and domain names are these days, but every now and then some confusion might arise as to whether they are independent or one in the same. Basically, your web hosting is the space you "rent" on the internet to place your website. Your domain name, also called your URL is www.your_website.com. Some hosting companies will offer the purchase of your domain name at the same time you purchase your hosting account. Often times however, you purchase a domain name separately from a company such as Register.com or GoDaddy.com.

FTP or Login Info: When you are asked for this information, this refers to the host name, user name, and password needed to access your hosting account. This will come from your hosting company when you sign up.

Site Map: A site map is exactly what it sounds like - a flow chart or outline of all the pages on your website. This is created to help organize the way your website is put together.

Menu or Navigation: Often times before creating a concept (see below) for your site, a designer will ask you what Menu items or Navigation you would like. These are simply the "buttons" within your page design that help a visitor get around to the other pages. For instance: About Us, Our Services, Our Products, and Contact Us could all be menu items.

"Mock Up" or Concept: When designers mention these terms they are talking about the initial or concept designs for your project. In the case of a website, the concept will most likely be delivered to you via the web and be an example of how your site will look. These concepts are created and revised to achieve the final look of your website. Also note that designers often use "dummy text" (see below) if you have not already provided "content" (see below).

Royalty Free or Stock Photography: Royalty Free and Stock Photography refers to photos and graphic images that you or your designer purchases to use within your design or on your website pages. These images can vary greatly in price, depending on the company they are purchased from. A good designer will have their own selection of images that were already purchased for you to choose from. Even so, sometimes the "perfect" image(s) can not be found so you must turn to other sources.

Screen Resolution: The resolution for images and graphics for the web is 72 dpi (dots per inch). If you supply images to your designer, they should be of this resolution or higher. If you expect to do any printing (say, you want a brochure made to match the look of your website), your images will have to be in print resolution or 300 dpi.

Vector Graphic: Designers will sometimes ask if you have your logo as a vector graphic. Vector graphics are shapes, lines, text, even illustrations which have been created in Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand. What makes a vector graphic different from a regular graphic is it's ability to be resized (especially larger) without distortion or loss of quality.

"Dummy" or Filler text: Designers (both web and graphic) often use nonsense text in place of your real page text when first creating your site. Do not be alarmed! This is just to show you the areas where text will be placed. Once you provide your actual text, the designer will place that in those spaces.

Content: Content refers to any text or special images which will go on your website that you will need to provide to your designer.

Meta or "Head" Tags and Keywords: The meta (often called the head tags and keywords) of your page are special code to help search engines find your page. If your designer ask you for these you should provide the following: a description of your company/site (this can be several sentences that include your company name and a few keywords about what you do); page titles (what you would like each page of your website to be titled - this shows up in the browser window); keywords (these are single words and short phrases that you believe your visitors might type in a search engine in order to find your website).

CSS or Stylesheet: CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet. It is a system of coding that helps control things like the font on your page, link colors, page layout and many more.

Static HTML or Static Page: Most websites are created with the language of HTML. Often times, a designer will call something "static" to denote that it is 1) not Flash (see below), or 2) not dynamically generated from a database. This is simply a "regular" website page.

Flash: Flash is the software from Macromedia that designers use to create motion and animation on your website. This can be in the form of a presentation, moving graphics, or even a game. The applications for Flash have grown along with high speed internet connections such as DSL and Cable.

"Splash" Page: This is usually referred to as a page that loads up before the main pages of your site. It can be your logo, or a Flash animation. Most designers are trying to steer their clients away from such a page as the attention span of the average internet user is quite short these days!

Blog: Blog is short for Web Log and has fast become a very popular feature on many websites. Basically, a blog is a way for you to keep your site content fresh by posting articles and other information on your site.

Online Marketing: A designer might mention Online Marketing to you as something to consider to help promote your site. This can include: affiliate programs, search engine optimization (see below), banner advertising, placing your website link in directories on the web, email advertising, newsletters, and online press releases.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Although most designers do not perform this type of Optimization, they might mention it if you show an interest in ranking better in the search engines. SEO is the process of manipulating your page content and Meta tags in order to achieve better rankings.

mySQL or msSQL/SQL and Databases: Unless you have custom programming or an ecommerce shopping cart on your website, your designer most likely would not mention these things. Nevertheless, sometimes they do come up if some of these things might be happening at a later stage. mySQL is the type of database that you would need to have set up if you are hosting your website on a UNIX server whereas msSQL is the type that is set up if your are hosted on a Microsoft Windows server.

Sherry is the Creative Director and Senior Designer at California studio, JV Media Design (http://www.jvmediadesign.com).

Monday, August 18, 2008

Why Does Your Business Need A Website

Writen by David Cooper

A website is an extremely valuable tool that will improve your existing marketing, sales, recruitment and customer support effort. In fact, if your business does not have online presence then you are losing sales opportunities. A good website will help you reach and retain customers.

If you are unsure as to whether or not your business could benefit from a website, simply take a look at the following benefits:

Increase your sales
Well built website will almost surely increase your revenue. Shopping online is quick and easy; now more than 20 million people shop online purchasing everything from books to computers to cars to real estate to jet airplanes to natural gas to you name it. Also, don't be so quick to dismiss your product as one that can't be sold online. Nowadays, there is very little that can't be sold over the Internet. If you can imagine it, someone will figure out how to sell it online.

Reach more customers
Having your business website will enable you to reach potential customers not only in your neighborhood or city but also nationwide and even worldwide. Your website will open never before seen horizons for your business.

Improve your customer support efforts
Many consumers now search for information online prior to making a purchase at a brick-and-mortar store; your Web site may be the first chance you have at making a good impression on a potential buyer. Having your contact information online will also benefit your business. Making it easy to contact your representative and get driving directions to your location will not only increase your sales online but will also bring local customers to your store or office.

Many customers ask the same questions over and over again. You can effectively eliminate this problem by posting frequently asked questions on your website. Having live chat and e-mail support on your website is another way to decrease the load on your phone support staff.

Your business website gives your customers access to your business 24/7 with very little or no increase in overhead costs. Even if you don't have an online catalog, having your information available allows the customer to at least look at their convenience.

For many businesses having a website means less customer support representatives which in turn means less expenses. Having a good website can sometimes even eliminate the need for the actual store. Goods could be shipped directly from the warehouse.

Make existing customers come back again and again
With your business website you can easily start collecting information like customers mailing and e-mail address. Then it will be extremely easy to send out newsletters or postcards with your new products, special promotion and sales, etc.

Compete with the "big boys"
It is often difficult to compete with a large store over the share of the local market. With the help of your website you eliminate that problem. You no longer have to worry about the size of your store or the number of customer support representatives. Online your website is your face and if it is built professionally it can easily generate better sales then even those of much bigger company.

Reduce information distribution cost
Practically every business distributes some sort of information...product sell sheets, technical specifications, catalogs, order forms, proposals, etc. A business website allows you to provide that information in real time when the customer needs it at almost no cost.

In online business it does not matter if you are a one-man show or a 10,000-employee corporate giant; if you don't have a Web site, you are losing business to other companies that do.

David Cooper has been developing web sites since early 1999. Currently he runs http://www.Spaiz.net - web design company and working on a new Content Management System at http://www.azureSites.com

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Generating Timeless Content

Writen by Tim Priebe

Let's face it. Although there are sections of your site that you will hopefully update continuously (see previous entry on Generating fresh content), there are others that will likely remain untouched for years at a time. If you have a page with the history of your company, that's not the type of thing that will change from day to day. Or if you're an award winning artist, although you will hopefully continue to win awards, it's not going to be happening on a daily basis.

So when you are writing the content of pages that will likely not be updated on a regular basis, there are a few things you will want to avoid so that the content can be more timeless.

1. Always mention dates, not ages.

Don't say that your company is five years old. If you do, you'll have to go in every anniversary of your company and update that figure. Instead, say the year or date that your company started.

The same thing applies to biographies of individuals. If you really want people to know how old that person or those people are, give their birthday, not their age. If worst comes to worst, say things like "over 15 years of experience," or "our company has been in operation for over 50 years."

Of course, if your site is written wholly or in part by a programmer, it is possible for them to calculate those ages automatically with a program. But for the typical website creator, the date will be sufficient.

2. Don't double up on content.

Let's say that your email address is mentioned throughout your website, as well as on your Contact page. Over the course of a couple of years, your site could very well grow to be a couple hundred pages. If you now decide to change your email address, you are stuck changing it on every page it appears on. Dozens, to say the least.

Instead, in every place that you instruct someone to contact you, simply place a link to your contact page.

3. Simply don't mention facts that are likely to change.

Let's say your business has a high turnover rate in regards to employment. Maybe you hire college students. Whatever the case may be, you don't want to have to update your staff page every two weeks.

Instead, simply mention the more permanent employees, like yourself. If you want to mention the other employees at all, talk about them generically. If they are college students, you could mention that. But only be as specific as absolutely necessary.

4. Don't talk about specific technologies that are likely to change.

We live in a world with constantly changing technology. Where were all the blogs in 2000? They really didn't exist. So when working on pages that will likely not be updated often, don't mention specific technologies.

Instead of mentioning an email newsletter or a blog, simply talk about how open your company's communication policy is, and that you use technology standards. Then on the page that actually houses your blog or the sign-up form for your email newsletter, you can go into more specifics.

As you design your site, make sure you decide early on which pages are going to warrant constant updates and which are not. Then these guidelines can be used to help you write for those pages.

Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Art Artists And The Webpart 2first Steps In Building An Artists Website

Writen by Mary Baker

What you should do and know if you are an artist and you have decided to have a website.

1) Look at "Web Sites That Suck."

If you are an artist and have never had a website, the concept of a website can seem unnerving. The first thing to do is look at a web site called "Websites that Suck", www. websitesthatsuck.com by Vincent Flanders. This is a website that is so funny, and so enlightening and it is very hard to stop looking at it. You will also learn a great deal as an artist about the Web and feel much more at ease after that experience.

2) Get a domain name.

A domain name is "www. name.com" of your web site. Artists need to have their own name as part of their domain name, "www. yourname.com" or "www. yourname artist.com". It is not a good idea to have the gallery that may represents you as part of your domain name. Web visitors are looking for the artist, the artists art work, not the gallery. But, by having the website in your name, you also help the gallery, because you can promote the gallery on your website.

3) Find a person to design the website.

People like to design for artists; this is one of the "perks" of being an artist. There are a lot of great people involved with the Web who do not have huge overheads who can design a very good website for you. The cost can be for as little as $500 or less.

4) Find a Hosting Company.

There are many places that will host your website for $100 or less a year. Your web designer should be able to help you with this.

5) Web browsers come in different sizes.

Web browsers come in all different shapes and sizes, from very small to very large. It will be impossible to make your wesite look perfect for every size web browser. This means that you as an artist will need to make some compromises. This is a good thing to know while you are thinking about your website design.

There are websites that let you look and see how your website looks in different sizes and on different web browsers for free. After your web design is completed, lookup "web browser size test tool" on a search engine to find one.

6) Copyright information.

It is impossible to completely protect your images on the Web. People simple do not pay attention to copyright information. Your best protection is to keep the images small, so if a visitor enlarges the image, it will look blurry. Also put "your name © the year" under the image of your art work. All the fancy things that are suggested for protection do not work. You can put copyright information all over your art work, I've seen it done, but it defeats the purpose of your website and web visitors will not return.

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 Money, Tips on Breaking the Creative Block , Art,Women and Creativity 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 Problem With Automated Accessibility Testing Tools

Writen by Trenton Moss

An automated accessibility tool is a piece of software which can test a web page, or even an entire website, for accessibility. Automated accessibility tools are useful because they can save you a huge amount of time. Don't want to check images for alt text on each and every page on your website? Run the site through an automated tester and it'll do it all for you!

Automated accessibility testing tools have been around for a long time and have historically been a useful way of checking websites for accessibility. Bobby, one of the first and most well-known automated accessibility testing tools, is now almost 10 years, and although is no longer freely available, plenty of other free tools such as WebXact (http://webxact.watchfire.com/) and Wave (http://wave.webaim.org/index.jsp)do exist.

But are these tools a little too good to be true? Can you test a website for accessibility so easily? Unfortunately the answer is a resounding no. There are a number of underlying problems associated with using just automated tools to test for accessibility:

Literal interpretation of guidelines

Any automated accessibility testing tool, being a piece of software, doesn't have very much in the way of common sense. It will interpret each and every accessibility guideline literally, without bearing any other thought to what else is on the page.

The definition of the word guideline, according to Dictionary.com, is "a rule or principle that provides guidance to appropriate behaviour". A guideline simply offers guidance to what the best practice is - it shouldn't just be applied without regard to other factors.

For example, one of the W3C accessibility guidelines states that a table summary should be provided for all tables. (This summary doesn't appear on the screen, but it's read aloud to screen reader users before reading through the table content.) Table summaries are useful as they tell screen reader users what to expect in the table. However, there may be a heading directly before the table and it describes what the table is about. In this instance, this summary is essentially useless as it will just repeat what the previous heading said.

Can't check any content issues

The way that content is structured both on the page and across the website is a massive part of accessibility. A website may be perfectly coded and conform to the highest coding standards. If its content is poorly structured though, the site will prove difficult to impossible for some special needs web users.

There are a number of important accessible content considerations, none of which automated accessibility testing tools can check for. Some of these important considerations include:

- Front-loading content so that each paragraph begins with the conclusion

- Ensuring content has been broken down into manageable chunks with descriptive sub-headings

- Using lists wherever appropriate

- Ensuring that plain and simple language is used

Can't check many coding issues

The vast number of accessibility guidelines tend to be related to how the site is coded. Automated accessibility testing tools are unfortunately unable to test for many of these too. Examples of HTML-related accessibility considerations which these tools can't check for include:

- Ensuring that text is real text and isn't embedded within images

- Making sure that the site functions without the use of JavaScript or Flash

- Providing equivalent text links if using server-side image maps

- Ensuring that the structure within the HTML reflects the visual appearance (e.g. headings are labelled as headings within the HTML code)

Outdated guidelines are used

Automated accessibility testing tools generally use the W3C accessibility guidelines, which by now are over five years old. As such, a number of these guidelines are outdated and don't apply anymore. In fact, some of them are now thought to hinder accessibility rather than help, so it's best to totally ignore these guidelines.

For example, an automated accessibility testing tool will probably insist that form items contain default place holding text. It may also insist that links need to be separated by non-link text. Neither of these guidelines are relevant anymore and their implementation could make accessibility worse rather than better.

Most guidelines aren't properly checked

Automated accessibility tools can check for a number of guidelines, and can tell you when a guideline isn't being adhered to. However, when the tool claims that a guideline is being fulfilled this may in fact be a false truth.

For example, if all images contain alt text then the software will report a pass for this guideline. But what if the alt text isn't descriptive of its image? What if alt text is crammed full of nonsensical keywords for search engines? How can an automated accessibility tool possibly know this?

Warnings may be misinterpreted

The reports generated by automated accessibility tools provide warnings, as well as errors. These warnings are basically guidelines that the automated tool can't check for, but which may be errors. Often they're not, and in fact they're often not even relevant. However, some people reading a report may try to get rid of these warning messages by making the appropriate changes to their site. By doing so, they may be implementing guidelines that needn't be implemented and inadvertently lowering the website's accessibility.

Conclusion

Automated accessibility testing tools can be useful as they can save a large amount of time in performing some very basic checks for accessibility. However, they must be used with caution and they cannot be used as a stand-alone guide for accessibility checking. Indeed, some expert accessibility knowledge should always be applied in evaluating a site accessibility, perhaps in conjunction with the fantastic web accessibility toolbar (http://www.nils.org.au/ais/web/resources/toolbar/) to help dramatically speed up manual checks.

This article was written by Trenton Moss. He's crazy about web usability and accessibility - so crazy that he went and started his own web usability and accessibility consultancy (Webcredible - http://www.webcredible.co.uk)

Friday, August 15, 2008

Critical Elements Of An Ecommerce Website

Writen by Ray Yee

'About Us' Page

To establish your credibility, you need to write an 'About Us' page to tell your customers what your business is about, the services you offer, and what they can expect from you in general. This page is very effective in boosting customer confidence. Since many online shoppers view the 'About Us' pages of any business before making purchases, you risk losing customers if you do not include this page when designing your website.

'Contact Us' Page

In the event that the customer needs more information about your products, or faces problems with product delivery, this 'Contact Us' page will supply the necessary contact information they need. Be sure to include not only your email address, but also your mailing address and a toll-free phone number, if you have one.

FAQ Page

The FAQ page provides additional relevant details about your products and services. Since many customers may be unsure of whether to make the purchase because they lack the information they need, an 'FAQ' page can give your prospect the extra 'push' needed to close the sale.

List all the queries that you think your customers will have on the FAQ page. By anticipating the customers' queries and answering them on the FAQ page beforehand, you're increasing the confidence of your customers and saving yourself lots of valuable time. Simply direct your customers to check out the FAQ page first before contacting you for more information, to avoid the hassles of answering every single query that comes your way.

So how should you structure your FAQ page? First, group your questions into relevant categories, and position all the questions near the top of the FAQ page, in numbered lists. This is to provide your customers with an overview of all the questions. After which, you should follow with the individual questions and the answers.

Privacy Policy Page

To reassure your customers that the information you collect from them will remain confidential, you need a Privacy Policy on your website. Essentially, you need to tell your customers that you will not sell, rent or disclose their personal information with any third party. The information can refer to the email addresses you collect from your customers, or any other contact information.

Testimonials Page

For any online business, testimonials are essential for establishing your credibility. Testimonials form credible and unbiased recommendations for your product, and they are, by far, one of the easiest ways to increase your sales.

Why are testimonials so effective for your online business? If your customers are exposed to comments of people like themselves who have used your products before, the trust between you and your customers is stronger. Hence, testimonials can overcome the skepticism of any hesitant customers, by confirming that your products do give them the benefits you promised on your website.

Of course, apart from dedicating one entire page for your customer testimonials, you should also display your testimonials prominently throughout your website. You can place them on the front and center of your home page, or on the sidebars. Be sure to place at least one testimonial on every page so that your visitors will always be exposed to the positive comments about your products, no matter which webpage your visitor happens to be browsing.

To get testimonials for your website, simply contact your customers either by email or by phone, and ask for their feedback of your products. Ask them specifically how your products benefited them, and whether they were satisfied with your products. Also ask them to include details like name, country and hometown on the testimonial to further establish credibility.

Shopping Cart Functions

If your online business sells a huge catalogue of products, you definitely require a shopping cart to process the customers' orders and calculate the total charges. The shopping cart also submits the data securely to your payment processor, so that you can accept credit card payments from your customers.

When selecting a shopping cart, remember that customer convenience is a very important consideration. Customers should be able to browse your products and add items to their shopping cart easily without going through too many clicks. This certainly creates an impression of professionalism in the eyes of your customers.

Payment Processor

Of course, an online business is not truly 'online' without the ability to accept credit cards over the internet. It is an undeniable fact that over 80% of most online businesses accept customer payments with credit cards, instead of checks or over the phone. Hence, you definitely need to be able to accept credit card payments online, in order to cater to the payment preferences of your entire market satisfactorily.

There are various payment processors available; well-known companies like Paypal, 2CheckOut and ClickBank immediately come to mind. Different credit card payment processors charge different fees and offer unique services, so the exact choice of a payment processor is up to you.

Live Chat Service

Whenever possible, you should include a live chat service on your website. Of course, at least one of your business staff will have to be available for a certain number of hours each day, to answer the queries and requests of your customers. Such a service can dramatically increase the reputation and credibility of your business, and ultimately your profit margin.

Usually, such a live chat service cannot be implemented for free. There are many companies on the net that provide this live chat service, and most will need you to pay a monthly fee to install their live chat software on your site. However, the benefits of having this live chat service may far outweigh the costs, so do not be put off by the fees easily.

In conclusion, you need to have these critical features when designing your website – About Us Page, Contact Us Page, FAQ Page, Privacy Policy, Testimonials Page, Shopping Cart Functions and also Payment Processing Functions. The live chat service is optional, depending on your business.

Ray Yee is the founder of Dropshipperscentral, a website that provides a wealth of informative articles, guides and resources on everything you'll need to know about setting up and marketing a Drop Ship Business. Click here for the Drop Ship Directory from http://www.dropshipperscentral.com

So You Want Your Site To Be Number 1

Writen by David Andrew Smith

You have products or services you want to sell? You want to use the internet as your main publicity vehicle? So you want a website? You want to sit atop the rankings for the search engines? You want loads of visitors to your site? You want a high conversion rate from visitors to paying customers? We are all in that situation and it is possible to achieve all of these wants by following a few simple rules.

1. Web Site Design.

Keep it simple with no flashy opening graphics. People searching for products or services do not want to wait while these graphics load and play through. They will probably have gone elsewhere before they get to the 'nitty gritty' of your site. Text based sites load faster, are more search engine friendly and are more likely to contain information the visitor is searching for. Base your site on plenty of good text and keep the graphics to the absolute minimum required to do the job.

2. Web Site Structure.

Produce as many pages as you can. The bigger the better.. Search Engines give a preference to sites with large numbers of pages. Plan a straightforward navigation path through these pages. Make it simple for people to find what they are looking for on your site and easy to click through onto different pages.

3. Web Site Content

Good quality content is a necessity if your site is to perform well. So what makes good quality content? Firstly it has to be well written from the point of view of grammar and punctuation. Secondly it must contain information into which your keywords can be embedded. Telling people how marvellous your products or services are is not good quality. Telling them what the likely benefits are to them is good quality and a better sales pitch into the bargain. Put yourself in the position of a visitor. Does your site tell them how to solve their problem? Is it informative and easy to read? It should be.

4. Search Engine Positions

Submit to as many free directories as you can find. Look at your competitors backlinks and find sites that you can also submit to. Develop some reciprocal links with related sites. What constitutes a related site is quite flexible so think carefully about these before committing to a link. Link with a wide range of sites with differing page rank values do not only choose those with high page ranks. The bulk of the links should be page rank 3 or 4. Develop a weblog attached to your site and keep this updated, at least once per week. This will attract the search engines to spider your site and will also attract in more links. Write and publish articles which will bring in large numbers of inbound links and by putting them onto your site will update and increase your content.

Four basic rules have been outlined above which if carried through should eventually see your 'wants' gratified. However I have only skimmed the surface as each of these topics are several articles in themselves, but you should be able to easily find information about each of them. Take on board the advice and your site will be one of the successful ones.

David Andrew Smith is the owner of http://www.wesparkle.co.uk a cleaning services company and he has developed his own website

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Html Links In Plain English

Writen by Michael Russell

HTML links. The heart and soul of web pages. Without links it would be impossible for a visitor to get from one web page to another, meaning that without HTML links, web pages would be pretty worthless.

Everyone at one time or another, has received an email and inside of it they see something that says "click on me" and then when they do they are transferred from the email they received to some web site. What they clicked on was a link. Most email programs allow for HTML or at the very least, links, so that a person can get from their email to a web page.

Once at the page, the real navigation around the site begins, that is unless the page is the only page in the site. In that case there probably won't be any links for the visitor to click on from that point. But in most cases, this page is just the beginning.

In HTML, links are designated by the [a] tag. The action of going from one web page to another is called hyperlinking.

The main part of the link tag is the href attribute. This is where the actual address of the destination or target web page is placed. It is very important that the address of the web page is spelled exactly as it should be otherwise the visitor will end up with a message that the page can't be found, or what is called a 404 error. HTML compilers are stupid. They don't know what you mean. They only know what you tell them. So if the site you're supposed to designate in the href is www.mysite.com and you spell it www.mysits.com, the compiler is going to look for what is spelled and not what you meant to spell.

Another useful attribute is the target attribute. This is where you can designate where the new URL will be displayed. This is useful for when you don't want the original web page to close when the visitor goes to the next page. This is handled by designating target=_blank. This way a new blank browser window will open and then the new URL or web page will be displayed, leaving the page the visitor came from still open. This way they can go back to it easily.

One thing that is great about links is that you don't have to display the whole URL to the visitor for them to click on. For example, let's say the web page has an address of www.gototheheadoftheclassandgiveanappletotheteacher.com. That's kind of a long URL and a visitor might get dizzy looking at it. Easy to fix. Even though you have to pass the actual web address in the href to the browser, in between the opening and closing [a] tags you can place a visual text something like "click here" for the visitor to see. This makes it very easy for the visitor to see that there is a link for them to click on in order to go to the next web page and at the same time they don't have to look at something like the monster web address we just typed.

Yes, links are the heart and soul of HTML. Without them, a web page would just be a pretty picture that nobody would see.

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Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to HTML
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Website Conflict Design Vs Marketing Part 1

Writen by Paul Jerard

What is the primary purpose of your website? What is more important - your design or your sales? Who should you listen to - the copywriter or the web designer?

Hopefully, you are already clear on which is more important, but let's look at a few points to get through this impasse. Your website is either related to a business, hobby, or a charity. This classification will help you decide if sales, or design, should have the final say.

If you have a hobby, and want an interactive way to reach out to your fellow hobbyists, you can get a free Blog. There is no need to get involved with website design or a sales letter. So, save yourself a lot of extra work, time, and effort with a user-friendly Blog.

If your business is a legitimate charity, you do need a website, but your language on the cover page, has to be a soft approach. However, using the art of persuasion is also "selling." Sorry to be so blunt, but you are asking for donations, and you need to convince your visitors. Why should they send you funds, instead of sending it to another charity?

Lastly, if you have a business, don't listen to your web designer, when it comes to sales copy, sales process, or closing a sale. When your end goal is to close a sale, you cannot afford to become distracted from the primary purpose of your website. You also cannot afford to create diversions for your prospects. Below are two of the many sad stories I have seen, and heard, about marketing on the Internet and being confused about priorities.

Start up Scenario 1: A group of wholesale warehouses needs distributors, so they come up with an idea: Create websites that look like catalogs - in the neighborhood of $8,000, and tack on a fair monthly maintenance fee. For those of you who know the ropes, please hold back your laughter – there's much more.

All of the marketing, SEO, and coaching is "bare bones." They coach a novice for about an hour each on two of these three subjects, for a total of two hours. Your SEO program is limited to 10 keywords for the whole site, and you are submitted to 2,500 search engines every month for a year. They don't talk to you about unique title pages, meta tags, keywords, or content.

Do any of you smell a fire? Run as far away from this as you can, or talk to a trusted friend who is experienced with e-Commerce, before considering something like this. This is all legal, but they are literally sending these poor people "up a creek without a paddle," with an investment to oblivion.

Paul Jerard is a co-owner and the director of Yoga teacher training at: Aura Wellness Center, in North Providence, RI. He is also a published author and copywriter who specializes in sales copy for the wellness industry. You can see an example of his work at: http://www.yoga-teacher-training.org/index.html

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Link Trades That Waste Your Time

Writen by Tim Frady

Never has competition been so difficult in the Internet world. Google and Yahoo keep indexing more and more pages, into the millions upon millions, and yet more and more people are creating super quickie links pages that are supposed to get other webmasters to want to trade links with them.

I still trade links with other webmasters, but I've gotten more particular as the link trade offers get worse and worse.

First of all, nobody uses title tags correctly anymore. Just for example, a directory page for cars should have a automotive keyword in the title tag, not "ACME Soap washes your odor away guaranteed!". Would I want my hot rod site listed on a page with that for a title tag? Remember, if by some miracle that page got listed in Google the link would read "ACME Soap washes your odor away guaranteed!". More than likely the page wouldn't even come up under any searches for cars or hot rods, even if all the links on the page were automotive related. Now, this example was a good links directory compared to most today.

Most people who want to trade links have links directory consisting of nothing but miscellaneous links. I mean nothing but links. I've seen a lot with no design whatsoever and no title tag at all. A page of links with no theme whatsoever is worthless for my site and yours.

The hidden links page is also a big frustration of mine. You've got to love it. One webmaster said you shouldn't need a magnifying glass and a GPS system to find a link to the directory. Webmasters need to start treating their links pages as though they were as important as the rest of their site.

A lot has been said about link trades being a lot less effective these days. Could the problems we've covered here be the cause?

A Good Directory

A good links directory has title tags that relate to the content of the page, is organized neatly by theme, is easy to find, and is as close to your website's main theme as possible. In other words, the more related the site is to your site's content, the more the link trade is going to be valuable to your site. This is regardless of whether or not you get a higher search engine ranking. The best possible link trade for overall increases in traffic are ones that are going to boost your traffic with or without search engines, and if the links directory is a resource to the public you will get traffic from it. It would be much more probable that you would get a boost from such a site.

The basic moral of the story is if you want good sites to link to you then make a good professional looking links directory, and please no more title tags that do nothing but repeat your business name.

Feel free to use this article on your site, but please add a link to this site at the bottom of the article.
Article from webmaster of WebmasterTips.us Website Resources

Do Smallmedium Size Businesses Need A Website

Writen by Solomonraj Pillay

The answer to that question is probably "Yes" but then you will say, I would say that because it is my business- so don't take my word for it you figure out if your business need a website. Before you spend any money ask yourself the following questions:

Do your customer look for your services/products on the net?
Yes! most of the average British house hold have access to internet and they would research before they part with their hard earned money. So your customer will expect to find you on the net.

Do your competitors have a website?
Imagine that a prospective client is considering hiring your business and is attempting to use the web to compare your services to the competitors. If you don't have a site, it makes you appear less established and professional. Its like not having a business card.

Are your competitors larger than you?
If your business is very small, or you're just starting out, you may want it to appear larger than it is. A well-designed and highly professional website gives the appearance that your business is large and established.

Do you want to expand your customer base?
If you want to grow your business, you will need a web site to reach clients in new areas. Suppose you've always focused on one industry, but now want to offer a new service tailored to a different industry. Your website can be easily modified to accomodate the intended audience.

Investing in website is not very expensive business now, if you go for a right company- There are company offering basic website package starting from £250. Some company also offer a free basic training along with the web package to get you started.

Rubelon WebTec - We specialize in creating professional custom-made web sites for small and medium sized businesses, not-for-profit organisations and personal web sites. We are qualified software professionals specialised in web designing. We are located in Crawley, West Sussex, UK. We believe in helping charity organisations, small/medium size businesses to have a web presence. We are open to new ideas and challenges. We work with you to create what you want right from the initial planning. We provide complete professional design at fixed prices from a range of web design packages to match the needs of all types of customers. - Basic web package starting at £250 Visit - http://www.RubelonWebtec.com or http://www.RubelonWebtec.co.uk

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Analyzing Traffic Visitors V Hits

Writen by Halstatt Pires

A key component to every web site is traffic analysis. When analyzing traffic, it is important to understand the difference between hits and visitors…and why both are important.

Be One With The Log

To analyze traffic to a site, you should be looking at your server logs. Server logs come in very raw data, but most hosting companies have interpreting programs that summarize the information into readable form. From these programs, you should be able to analyze who is sending you traffic, the number of hits and visitors among other information.

Hits v. Visitors – The Game Is On…

Many people, myself included, are lazy when it comes to discussing traffic results. We tend to use "hits" as a catch phrase for traffic hitting a web site. This isn't entirely true. Traffic should always be analyzed in two categories, hits and visitors.

A "visitor" is a click from someplace on the net to your site. In your server logs, a visitor will be credited with visiting the site one time regardless of the number of pages the visitor views. For example, a person entering a brick n' mortar bookstore is only one potential customer regardless of the number of books the person looks at.

A "hit" is a click on any page of the site and represents a multiple of the visitors. When you review server logs, the hits represent how many times visitors clicked site pages. Going back to our bookstore example, every book viewed by the person in the bookstore would be a hit. So, which information is more important?

Hits v. Visitors – An The Winner Is…

The simple fact is both visitors and hits are important statistics to analyze in your server logs. Obviously, the information on the number of visitors is important because you want to know how many potential customers are coming to your site. That being said, you should never focus on visitors without contemplating hits as well.

Hits are important because the number of hits tells you very important information about your site. Since hits represent the total number of pages viewed by all visitors, you can use the information to determine the effectiveness of your site. I call this by the very original and sophisticated name "hits to visitors ratio." Let's go back to our bookstore example.

Assume a person walks into a bookstore and only looks at one book. This may mean the person knew what they wanted, found it and bought it. Obviously, this is an ideal result. But what if a thousand people walk into the bookstore and only look at one book each? The bookstore would have a problem and start trying to figure out what it is. The hits statistics on your server tell you the same thing.

If your site has multiple pages, you need to find out if visitors are clicking into the internal pages. This is generally known as determining the depth of your site. The simplest way to do this is to divide the number of hits by the number of visitors for a particular time period. This figure will tell you if people are seeing one "book" or taking a look around.

Analyzing your server stats can be a real eye-opening experience. The information can be good or bad, but at minimum you will know if any corrective steps need to be taken.

Halstatt Pires is an Internet marketing consultant with http://www.marketingtitan.com - an Internet marketing firm in San Diego.

Monday, August 11, 2008

What And How To Choose The Right Keywords For Mega Traffic

Writen by Burke Ferguson

Keywords in Search Engine Optimizing and Search Engine Marketing are the building blocks and foundation of your website on the search engines. If your foundation is weak or poorly put together your webpages won't have much to be based upon for the engines to rank with.

Therefore, careful consideration is of utmost importance when choosing your keywords for your webpages, and so if you choose and target the wrong keywords, all your efforts will be wasted.

When having chosen your keywords, you could be in one of two scenarios: You were able to get a top 10 position in a major search engine and were very excited about the traffic that flooded in, or You got a top 10 ranking, but only a few visitors trickled in to see your site.

Whats happened?

Well, in the first scenario, the person selected a keyword or phrase that was very popular and chose correctly, and lots a people searched on it, rather the other person optimized his/her page for a keyword phrase that not many people searched on, therefore received very little traffic.

So the million dollar question is then: How do you know how to choose the right ones to optimize your website for?

I'll first mention a few ways in which to choose your keywords wisely and then ways to see how popular they are.

1. Think in terms of your customer, put yourself in your customers shoes, what would your customer search for to find you? and 2. Focus your keywords into short, 2 or 3 word phrases (Studies show the majority search for 2 or 3 word phrases)

You can use the above tips in conjunction with the following tools.

http://www.nichebot.com
https://adwords.google.com/select/main?cmd=KeywordSandbox
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion

The above sites will be very useful, in choosing your keywords, so use them to your advantage.

The overture tool, shows the phrase and the number of times a keyword phrase was searched for in the preceding month, while the Google Tool is used for adwords, although I myself and know of others that still use it for general keyword knowledge, and the nichebot site is very useful and a knowledgeable tool for "spotting" the niche words that are being searched for.

Ideally, you want to target keywords and phrases that are searched with some frequency, and that are specific to your Web site, but less competitive, or put another way, think and choose popular keywords that your competitors have overlooked, and which are still popular.

The best thing to try to do is to target multi-word keyword phrases that give you the highest quality leads. For example; if your targeting "software" don't just optimize your page for that word "software" chose a focused niche phrase to target, think in terms of "childrens software" or "educational software",... get the idea?

Think focus?

Also, a small addendum I saw recently on Webposition.com; "...If you take the time to target the RIGHT keywords,[...]you'll be ahead of 99% of the world and you'll be generating more traffic with less effort. Work smarter, not harder is what we always say!"

To sum up,... put yourself in your customers shoes when choosing our keywords, what do you want your customer to search for so they find you online, and input that into a 2 or 3 word phrase, while using the above tools to assist you in this process.

This article was written by Burke Ferguson of AltaCanWeb.com. Burke holds both a BSc. degree in Computer Science as well Certification in Search Engine Optimization and Marketing Strategies. He also regularly publishes The ACE! newsletter, in which he shares his experience, methods, and knowledge with others. Burke can be contacted by his main website AltaCanWeb.com or The ACE! ezine.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Add Dynamic Touches To Your Website Using Javascript

Writen by Sergio Roth

You're not a programmer but you have a website. Would you like to add some JavaScript to it to make it look more dynamic and appealing? I have used JavaScript in many of the websites I have programmed, to do things that range from displaying today's date to using Ajax. Of course I will not speak about Ajax in this article, Ajax would need an article on its own and is beyond the scope here. Just in case you're wondering what Ajax is, it is a set of JavaScript instructions and classes that allow browsers to get information from a script in the server and update the page contents dynamically without having to reload the page. As I was saying, I will not discuss Ajax here. But I will share part of my knowledge and provide some ready-to-use code that you can easily add to your pages. The code pieces are independent, so you do not need to add them all. Each one works on its own. So let's begin.

In case you're wondering if you need anything special to run JavaScript, the answer is no. You just need your browser. The only trick is to have JavaScript enabled in the browser, which is how most people have it set.

I am not trying to teach you JavaScript here. I am just trying to provide you some snippets of code you can use directly of-the-shelf to enhance your pages.

Display today's date You can use this JavaScript small bit of code to display today's date anywhere in the page. Just insert the code where you want the date to appear. Enclose all this code between script and /script tags.

  var days = new Array('Sunday','Monday','Tuesday','Wednesday','Thursday','Friday','Saturday');  var months = new Array('January','February','March','April','May',
'June','July','August','September','October','November','December');  var d = new Date();  var weekDay = days[d.getDay()];  var month      =  months[d.getMonth()];  var day   = d.getDate();  var year = d.getYear();  var suffix = 'th';  if (day == 1) suffix = 'st';  else if (day == 2) suffix = 'nd';  else if (day == 3) suffix = 'rd';  document.write(weekDay+', '+month+' '+day+suffix+', '+year);

This piece of code will display the date in this format: Monday, April 3rd, 2006 . If your site is in a language other than english, just replace the days and months names. You can replace the suffix letters so they don't get displayed either, by changing 'th' to '', 'st' to '', 'nd' to '' and 'rd' to ''. If you want to change how the date is displayed, to make it look like this, for example: Monday, 3 April 2006 , you need to move things around a little in the document.write line. This is how the document.write line should look to display the date in the format I just mentioned:

document.write(weekDay+', '+day+' '+month+' '+year);

You can notice we have removed the suffix part here.

If you're wondering why would you like to display today's date in the page, the answer I give you is: to provide your visitors the impression that your page is updated very often. That the page is up-to-date. Anyway, I think it is a nice touch.

Display a message in the status bar You can use this small bit of JavaScript code to display a custom message in the browser's status bar. Enclose all this code between script and /script tags.

  window.status = 'This is my message.';

Paste this piece of code somewhere in the body of your page, and replace the This is my message text with the message you want to show.

You can combine both pieces of code and display today's date on the status bar if you wish. Just use the code piece to display the date, and replace

document.write(weekDay+', '+month+' '+day+suffix+', '+year);

with

window.status = weekDay+', '+month+' '+day+suffix+', '+year;

There is much more you can do with JavaScript to implement dynamic functionality in your page, including animation and menus. You will find scripts on the web you can use for free to implement these, or you can get someone to program the exact utility you need. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these two snippets of code I provided today.

Sergio Roth is freelance web programmer with a vast experience in Php, HTML, JavaScript, CSS and MySQL. You can contact him for web hosting, custom programming and domain registration at Ayreshost.com.

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