Why Should I Bother With Optimised Online Copywriting

Writen by Jackie Griffiths

It's no good having a creative, individual website with brilliant, informative copy if customers can't find you on the internet. On the other hand, it's also detrimental if you have a website that can be easily found (has a high ranking) but people become bored and alienated reading it.

Producing effective online copywriting is a creative process blending art and science in a balanced technique combining many different elements. This integration of disciplines is required to satisfy both the technical and the aesthetic objectives of a website.

Optimised online copywriting should ensure that your website is:

• highly readable to your viewers

• highly visible to the search engines, and thereby

• commercially successful for you.

Many people and businesses don't have the time to actually write web copy themselves. A professional freelance copywriter can furnish you with keyword-rich, highly original web content to enhance and improve the quality of your website with the aim of transforming more of your visitors into customers.

Rarely will you get a second chance to engage your customer's attention, so your first shot must be formatted for maximum sales potential, catching the eye of the search engine robots as well. But not too much… If your copy goes overboard in favour of the search engines it earn you a penalty from Google that will negatively effect your rankings. Your website must always have the reader as priority. This makes more business anyway.

Search engines provide a way for potential customers to find you on the internet. People type a keyphrase or keyword into a search engine, such as Google, Yahoo or MSN (or one of the many other popular engines) and this returns a page of listings - web page suggestions for that particular phrase or word. Obviously, you want your website to feature highly in this list.

Optimised online copywriting specifically targets the words and phrases people are using when searching for a product on the internet (Search Engine Marketing (SEM), keyword research). You want to make sure your website stays at the top of the listings so people go to your website before others. With targeted copy in place, search engines are more likely to index your web site on page one than if it does not include keyword-rich copy. This is an ever more important issue when dealing with Google, the leading search-engine today.

To rank highly in the search engines the words on your web pages should never be an afterthought, but should be included right at the beginning in the original design of your website. Content development is the most valuable asset web developers can utilise in the bid for productive, successful search engine optimisation and Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

Hiring a professional copywriter is a wise investment in your business future. Even if you don't want to optimise your site you should make sure that the words on your site are reasonable, enticing, spelled correctly and artfully arranged to engage attention. Just because you can type letters or write some emails doesn't mean you can write the copy for your website. The writing on your homepage is often how people determine whether the website is a scam or the genuine article. Your website's credibility takes a nose-dive if the spelling is wrong, or the grammar is incorrect, or it just reads like bad, clumsy English. People will be disinclined to trust your content.

Within the search engines new technologies and algorithms are being developed all the time to make search methodologies smarter, more astute. It's never a coincidence when someone types in a search phrase and your website is indexed highly on the page. Keyword rich online copywriting is a significant and critical component in gaining high rankings on the search engines.

Recently, Google has been pioneering a new trend of intelligent search engines which are not attracted by mere repetition of words throughout the text, but which look for meaning, attempting to make grammatical sense of the information, trying to understand what the web page is actually saying. This is forcing webmasters to improve the content on their web pages or suffer the consequences. The old saying has never been more relevant: "content is king."

Jackie Griffiths is Senior Copywriter at Freelance Copy UK:

http://www.freelance-copy.co.uk

Earn On Offshore Web Design And Development

Writen by Julia Ramyalg

If you have some experience in web site design and want to make good money you can try acting as IT-outsourcing partner. Learn more what you should know and how to start.

Why offshore web design and development?

Offshore web site design and development help to keep prices at least 3-5 times less, for example, average hourly rate of web development services in USA is $35-75; in UK - $25-50, in Ukraine - $5-20.

How it works?

Typical plan is like that:

• You find a client who needs a web site, ask his/her requirements for the project and send to your offshore partner company.
• The partner makes a proposal and gives you the project estimation basing on his hourly rate, for example, $10.
• You mark up the rate $10/hour as high as you wish (and can - taking into consideration competition in your region, level of demand for web design services, and other marketing factors), for example to $30/hour, and sends the proposal to the client. So if the web design project is estimated on 50 man-hours of work, you charge the customer $1500, from which $500 you pay to your offshore partner company, and $1000 is your profit.
• The partner company works on the project and delivers it to you along with copyright for the work.
• You deliver the site to the customer.

Result - you have a satisfied client and good profit from the marked up price.

How to start?

The first and most important step is to analyze market in your region and decide if it's worth to start this business.

If you already have your own web design company it is easier for you because you already know situation in the market, gain certain reputation, have clients list, etc. But don't be afraid if you are new to web design business. Believe in yourself and work hard and finally you will be rewarded for all your efforts. As in any type of business, starting the one in web design area, you must ask yourself general marketing questions:

1. Who will be your customers?
2. Why they will order the web design services exactly form you?
3. Where and how they will get to know about you?

Without having clear answers to these questions you shouldn't try to start anything.

The second step is to find trustful and reliable partner – offshore web design company – that will work as "development center" for your business. This company must have good experience in web design and development area, good reputation, top level of customer care and communication. There are many resources in the Internet where you can find necessary information – search engines, web design directories, outsourcing portals.

For example, you can try searching in search engines for appropriate key phrases "offshore web design", "offshore web site design", "offshore web development" and analyze sites of your potential partners.

Also here are several sites where you can find lists of offshore web design companies sorted by country.

http://web-designers.bluegeckonetwork.com/
http://www.theoutsourceguide.com/
http://www.1234-find-web-designers.org/

How to choose the right offshore web design partner company?

There are 2 main factors that determine your choice – cost and quality of web design work.

Cost
Basing on the average web design prices in your local market and your competitive abilities you set prices that you will charge to your customers. There are several methods of web design price calculation, most used are flat price for fixed web site packages, and price based on man-hour rate. Most web design companies operate with both and choose one depending on each project type and requirements.

Then you decide which profit you want to have and narrow down your search choosing companies with appropriate price range.

Quality
Consider the company reputation, portfolio of previous works, testimonials of previous customers, level of communication. Pay attention to payment policy and method, conditions of ready projects delivery, warranties, post-development support and maintenance.

If all details are agreed you may start partnership. Sometimes the first project is quite simple to test abilities of both parties and if everything is going well the partnership will bring mutual benefits.

Julia Ramyalg
Marketing Director
IT-Inventors

IT-Inventors is a professional offshore web site design company. We are located in Ukraine and due to local economy we can offer your affordable rate $10/hour for custom web site design and web development services. It's at least twice less than average Western European rates and more than 3 times less than USA rates.

We have developed more than 130 projects for dozens of satisfied customers, established strong relations with partners from USA and UK.

Services we offer: Custom web site design, E-commerce web site design, Content Management Software integration into existing web sites, Real estate web site design, Flash sites design, Logo design, SEO.

Surveying Clients About Your Website

Writen by Tim Priebe

In a previous article, I talked about determining when and if a website should be redesigned. One of the suggestions I made was that to help you determine if your website should be redesigned is to send a survey to your top fifty clients or so.

I thought I would go ahead and list some sample questions that could be included on such a survey. Keep in mind that this survey can be used not only to determine if your website needs to be redesigned, but also to determine generally how effective your website is.

I suggest the following comments/questions be answered on a 1-5 scale, where 1 means strongly disagree, 3 means neutral and 5 means strongly agree. An N/A option could be included as well. You should also include a section for comments at the bottom.

• I find it easy to navigate the website.
• The content on the site is appropriate.
• I find the site's content interesting.
• The site's design looks dated.
• I like the site's color scheme.
• The site should be more interactive.
• The site design is appropriate for the subject matter and content.
• The title of the site is appropriate placed on each page.
• The header of the site is an appropriate size.
• The amount of space the navigation takes up is appropriate.
• There are too many images on the site.
• The site takes too long to load.
• I will visit this site again.

In addition to those questions, the following may help as well.

• I visit the site:

  A. Less than once a month

  B. 1-2 times a month

  C. 2-5 times a month

  D. 5-10 times a month

  E. More than 10 times a month

  F. I have no idea

• I have recommended or talked about something on the site to:

  A. No one

  B. 1-5 people

  C. 6-15 people

  D. 15-30 people

  E. More than 30 people

  F. I have no idea

• I spend the most time in the following section of the site:

  A. Section 1 Name

  B. Section 2 Name

  C. Section 3 Name

  ...

  Z. I have no idea

• List five other, similar websites to ours that you frequently visit.
• List five things you'd like to see on our site.
• If you had to eliminate one section of our website, what section would it be?
• Where did you first hear about our website?
• Have you ever clicked on an advertisement that was displayed on our site?

There will probably be questions that are specific to your website that you should also ask. An arcade might ask whether the survey taker prefers arcade games or redemption games. A news publication might ask if the survey taker also receives a hard copy of the newspaper or magazine.

If it is possible, you should send out paper copies of the survey, but also make an online version available. Make sure you have the same questions and options in both places.

In addition to sending the survey to your clients, readers and/or customers, give them incentive to fill it out. Tell them they will be entered into some sort of drawing for filling out the survey. Make sure you include space for their name, address, phone number and email address so you'll know who turned in what survey.

Once you get the surveys, use Excel or a similar program to gather and analyze the data. Then you will know some ways in which you can improve your site.

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.

Building A Quality Website For 5 A Month

Writen by Ryan Bauer

Many people think that owning and running your own website is a big task – something that requires you to give lots of time and energy. Well, that's what the big companies would like you to think, because that's what makes them the most money. The truth is that running your own website can be a very affordable and stress-free affair. With the help of tips you'll read in this article, you too can run your own website for only around $5 per month. Brown-bag one lunch per month and you've easily paid for it, it's that simple.

There are three things that any web master must have to run a website. A domain name (your address, something such as www.mywebsite.com), web hosting (this the physical place where your information will be held), and, of course, a layout with content to place on your website.

Most hosting companies now-a-days offer a free domain name to customers as an incentive to sign up, so choose your host wisely and you can kill two birds with one stone. This not only saves you money on buying a domain name, since you're getting it free, but also saves you the hassle of dealing with another sign up, since the host handles all of the technical aspects of setting everything up.

When picking out your host, you'll want to make sure you have plenty of space to store your files. It is wise to make sure that you have at least a few hundred megabytes (MB) of storage space to ensure you won't run out of room to grow. You'll also want to make sure you have at least a few gigabytes (GB) of data-transfer per month, otherwise you could have a "cap" on how many visitors you can have per month.

To choose a good host, you can check out an independent hosting review site - this will allow you to make an informed decision, avoid getting ripped off, and make sure you get the highest bang-for-your-buck possible. It's also much easier to use a legitimate review site than to go out and pick a host by yourself. Do be careful when picking out a review website though, as many of them are biased/paid off/operate off of commissions.

Always avoid "free website" places. They cover your site with ads, and as a rule are unreliable and slow.

Once you have your hosting bought and picked out, you'll have your own website! It's that simple. Of course, at this point it will be empty, but it is a blank canvas for you to create your website.

To start with, you'll need a design. If you have experience in computer graphics and design, and are creative enough, you can create your own design. However, if you weren't born an expert at creating websites, not to fear. You can use a premade template that you like, and add your content to that. A simple Google search will uncover literally thousands of free and low-cost templates that you can add your content to and call your own site. You can use a program such as Microsoft's Frontpage to edit the template without programming any code.

And that's it! At this point, all you have to do is write content to add to your site, and call it a day! It really is that easy.

Ryan Bauer is a large-scale webmaster who runs a Web Hosting Reviews website and writes how-to articles for advanced computer users and webmasters.

Build A Strong Foundation For Creating Your First Online Identity Notes For Beginners

Writen by Arun Tibrewal

If you are looking for creating your online presence you should follow some of the basic requirements so that your new website will have a strong foundation. Today internet is a growing media which can provide you maximum results, which no other media can do for you. If you think on right direction and take your action step by step, it is almost certain that your site will have a strong online presence and reach to the maximum of you potential clients.

Remember empires never built in day, but it takes years of dedicated hard work, devotion, patience and to work constantly towards creating it successfully. If you are a slow mover but consistent towards your work, there is no reason your efforts will fail. Small efforts which you repeat day in and day out results 100% success in due time course. It is always advisable to get some basic knowledge before you begin your journey to a great on line success. Here are some general points which explain in brief on the basic requirements of creating your first online identity.

Choose a descriptive and short domain name. It is essential to choose a good domain name. Don't go for any sub domain or free domain, but always have your own, as people will be remembering you with your name only. It should be a TLD i.e. yourbusinessname.com, .org, .biz and so on.

Select a quality host, which can provide you consistent uptime and have flexibility to upgrade or extend required features for running your site effectively. In general if you like to have a greater visibility of your website you should hire services from a experienced hosting company even if there cost is high.

Make your site plan first. Just open your notepad and write down what is your site all about, what it sells, how it sells, to whom it will sell, and other things. Create different sections of your site theme and note it point by point. It is always advisable in beginning; you should start with the basic functionality and upgrade it later on. This will give you an instant kick start and you can always enhance its functionality with fewer efforts.

Write a unique copy. If you can write good contents, you can make a strong presence in World Wide Web and well ahead with your competitors. Make a killer copy of your contents; it should be unique and relevant to your site theme. It is a word that sells into the market, if you feel you can hire an agency that are specialized in writing contents on given basic parameters. There are several of them available on net which you need to do some research before hiring one i.e. carefully analyzing there credentials.

Build a website which loads fast and navigated easily. Means your visitors should find easily what they are looking for. Don't make your site just for search engines but create one for your visitors so that they can brows your site without any hassles. Your design should be an eye catcher with less images and better content visibility. Hire a designer who knows about the website usability analysis, visibility, website utility and present your main theme visible within the design. In nut shell your website will be carrying your brand value and should be presented in a professional manner in front of your visitors.

Optimize your site. Do the basic optimization of your site for different search engines. Initially you need not to hire any SEO or apply any killer techniques, but do it yourself few things so that search engines can find your site easily i.e. writing a good title, description of the site, adding proper met tags a submit to the different directories and search engines. Once they crawl your site and index it properly, you can keep on adding relevant contents on pages. You need a lot of patience to get visible in search engines if you follow the ethical ways, as it provide you a longer stay and better visibility on web.

Market your site. A Business is all about what is it and how it is marketed. A well marketed site may virtually force a visitor to become interested and make them confident enough to buy the services from you. The basics of marketing is of your own knowledge and some preset parameters i.e. What you sell, How you sell, Where you sell, Who are your targeted potential clients, how much domain knowledge you have, What is the actual strength of your product and so on. Create effective sale letters, know your targeted customers, draw a plan and quickly start implementing that. A well drawn regular marketing plan combined with selective advertisement campaign, implemented steadily on right time can provide greater results on World Wide Web enable you to reach your goal successfully.

Promote your site. Promoting your site is a vital technique which can not be done in one day or overnight. To get desired results you need to work hard constantly so that you will be able to capitalize the maximum exposures on world wide and establish your solid online presence. You can publish a press release, write articles, manually add your site to different directories on section which is most relevant for your site theme, and distribute ezines, banner advertisements, and many more possible ways to promote it regularly on internet.

These are the basic and fundamental need to build an strong foundation for your online presence. Remember a tallest building on earth has the strongest foundation too that support its structure to stay longer on earth. Follow the ethical ways and simple rules and take a step towards building an foundation of your online empire.

Arun Tibrewal is an online marketing promotions specialist since 1998 and owner of I-wayhost - Web Hosting and its network sites. I-wayhost is dedicated to provide top class hosting services with there straight forward plans. Permission is granted to reprint this article as long as the resource box should keep intact with the following links.

(Customized billing solutions)
(Online Marketing Blog)

The Secret Benefit Of Accessibility Part 2 A Higher Search Engine Ranking

Writen by Trenton Moss

An additional benefit of website accessibility is an improved performance in search engines. The more accessible it is to search engines, the more accurately they can predict what the site's about, and the higher your site will appear in the rankings.

Not all of the accessibility guidelines will help with your search engine rankings, but there are certainly numerous areas of overlap:

1. ALT descriptions assigned to images

Screen readers, used by many visually impaired web users to surf the web, can't understand images. As such, to ensure accessibility an alternative description needs to be assigned to every image and the screen reader will read out this alternative, or ALT, description.

Like screen readers, search engines can't understand images either and won't take any meaning from them. Many search engines can now index ALT text though, so by assigning ALT text search engines will be able to understand all your images.

2. Text displayed through HTML, not images

Text embedded in images appears pixelated, blurry and often impossible to read for users utilising screen magnifiers. From an accessibility point of view this should therefore be avoided.

Search engines equally can't read text embedded in images. Well, you can just give the image some ALT text, right? Unfortunately, there's strong evidence to suggest search engines assign less importance to ALT text than they do to regular text. Why? Spammers. So many webmasters have been stuffing their ALT tags full of keywords and not using them to describe the image. Search engines have cottoned on to this form of spamming (as they eventually do every form of spamming) and have taken appropriate action.

3. Descriptive link text

Visually impaired web users can scan web pages by tabbing from link to link and listening to the content of the link text. As such, the link text in an accessible website must always be descriptive of its destination.

Search engines place a lot of importance on link text too. They assume that link text will be descriptive of its destination and as such examine link text for all links pointing to any page. If all the links pointing to a page about widgets say 'click here', search engines can't gain any information about that page without visiting it. If on the other hand, all the links say, 'widgets' then search engines can easily guess what that page is about.

One of the best examples of this in action is for the search term, 'miserable failure'. So many people have linked to George Bush's bio using this phrase as the link text, that now when miserable failure is searched for in Google, George Bush's bio appears top of the search rankings!

4. Website functions with JavaScript disabled

JavaScript is unsupported by about 9% of web users (source: http://www.thecounter.com/stats/2004/November/javas.php), either because they've turned it off (for example to prevent pop-up adverts) or because their browser doesn't support it. Many forms of JavaScript aren't accessible to web users utilising screen readers.

Search engines can't understand JavaScript either and will be unable to index any JavaScript-driven content. Perhaps more importantly, they'll also be unable to follow JavaScript-driven links. You may really like the look of your dropdown menu but search engines won't if they can't access certain pages on your site because there aren't any regular links pointing at them.

5. Alternatives to Flash-based content provided

Flash, like JavaScript, isn't accessible to many users, including those using screen readers. Equally, search engines can't access Flash so be sure to provide equivalents.

6. Transcripts available for audio

Hearing impaired users obviously require written equivalents for audio content to be able to access it. Search engines too can't access this medium, but transcripts provide them with a large amount of text for them to index.

7. Site map provided

Site maps can be a useful tool for visually impaired users as they provide a straightforward list of links to the main pages on the site, without any of the fluff in between.

Site maps are also great for search engines as search engines can instantly index your entire site when they arrive at the site map it. Next to each link you can also provide a short keyword-rich preview of the page. All links should, of course, be made through regular HTML and not through JavaScript (see 4. above).

8. Meaningful page title

When we arrive at web pages the first thing that appears, and the first thing that visually impaired users hear, is the page title. This latter group of web users don't have the privilege of being able to quickly scan the page to see if it contains the information they're after, so it's essential that the page title effectively describes the page content.

If you know anything about search engine optimisation you'll know that the page title is the most important attribute on the page. If it adequately describes the content of that page then search engines will be able to more accurately guess what that page is about.

9. Headings and sub-headings used

Visually impaired web users can scan web pages by tabbing from heading to heading, in addition to tabbing from link to link (see 3. above). As such, it's important for accessibility to make sure that headings are correctly marked up by using h1, h2 etc.

Search engines assume that the text contained in heading tags is more important than the rest of the document text, as headings describe the content immediately below them. Make sure you use the heading tags properly and don't abuse them, as the more text you have contained in heading tags, for example, the less importance search engines assign to them.

10. CSS used for layout

Screen readers can more effectively work through the HTML code of CSS-based sites as there's a greater ratio of content to code. Websites using CSS for layout can also be made accessible to in-car browsers, WebTV and PDAs. Don't underestimate the importance of this - in 2008 alone there'll be an estimated 58 million PDAs sold worldwide (source: http://www.etforecasts.com/pr/pr0603.htm).

Search engines also prefer CSS-based sites and are likely to score them higher in the search rankings because:

- 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

Conclusion

With all this overlap between web accessibility and search engine optimisation there's no excuses for not implementing basic accessibility on to your website. It'll give you a higher search engine ranking and therefore more site visitors.

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.

How To Check If A Niche Site Will Be Profitable

Writen by Andrew Williams

To be profitable, there has to be:

a) Demand

b) Good affiliate programs you can promote (also high bids at the Pay Per Click Search engines is a good indicator).

To find out this information, I use Wordtracker and affiliate networks like Commission Junction.

Let's take the example of two potential niches and see if they are profitable. The niches I have chosen are "electric toothbrushes", and "hair removal".

Let's check Commission Junction (CJ) first.

Once you are logged in, click on "Get Links".

Select Links from the Search drop-down box, and type in hair removal into the search box.

Looking down the advertiser list of the results, you will see that there are several merchants offering hair removal products.

Click on the 3 Month EPC link at the top of that column to order the results by EPC. Those top performing ads look great. Check out the advertisers by clicking on the Advertiser link for any particular link.

(EPC is the amount of money the average affiliate makes per 100 visitors he sends to that merchant).

I clicked on Folica.com to see more information about that advertiser. Look at the EPC for the advertiser as this gives a better indication of overall advertiser performance than individual links.

A 3 month EPC of $17.63 (at the time of writing) means that for every 100 clicks from affiliate sites, the affiliates average $17.63 commission. Anything over $10 is good. You can also check out the 3 month trend for the advertiser. In this case, Folica.com have a very consistent EPC.

This is a good niche as long as there is demand.

Repeat the above steps for my other potential niche "electric toothbrushes". This time, just type in "toothbrush", not "electric toothbrush".

There are a few merchants there, but they are either new, or don't have any EPC data (at the time of writing this book). This lack of any clear data starts alarm bells ringing in my ears.

However, just to make sure, select "Products" from the drop-down search box, and type in toothbrush.

Ahh, now we have something. There are some novelty toothbrushes, and normal electric toothbrushes. Click on a few of the merchants and check out their EPC. When I checked they were a little disappointing, so I would rank the profitability of the toothbrush niche quite low.

I know I can find electric toothbrushes at Amazon and promote them from there, but Amazon has a very low commission rate.

Of the two, hair removal seems the better option. I hope it has a high demand.

Let's check demand

I like to carry out a couple of tests for demand. Firstly I'll check how many competing pages there are at Google for my main phrase. The higher the number, the more demand (since other webmasters have chosen to create pages on the topic). Secondly I'll head over to Wordtracker and check to see how many phrases are used to search for my niche. As I wont be able to compete in Google for my main phrase, I need to make sure there are sufficient phrases I can rank well for.

Let's look at this in detail.

1. Head over to Google and do a search for hair removal and electric toothbrushes,

hair removal - 25.6 million competing pages. electric toothbrush - 1.96 million.

(These figures were accurate on 13/02/2006. Click the hyperlinks for the two phrases to check what those figures are today).

OK, hair removal is looking promising.

Now head over to Wordtracker. Wordtracker in my opinion is the best tool for carrying out keyword research. I don't personally rate the accuracy of the Overture suggestion tool (and all keyword tools that use it for demand figures).

Login to Wordtracker.

In the Multiple Search section, click on Compressed search.

Type in hair removal, and select 500 from the Number of Results drop-down box.

Click Proceed.

When the results are all displayed, you will notice that 500 results are returned. This is good as it means that there are a lot of potential phrases for this niche.

Now for a little trick I use.

Scroll to the very bottom of the page. The table gives you the "Count", and "Predict" figures for each word.

At the time I checked, the count and predict figures were 10 and 12 respectively for the last phrase in the list.

This tells me there are a lot more phrases than just this 500. Correctly carrying out keyword research, will yield thousands of potential phrases for this niche.

As a benchmark, anything above a 5 for the last phrases in the results (assuming 500 results were returned), is a good indicator to me that the niche has a lot of phrases to target. The higher the value of the count for the last phrase in the list, the more phrases you will find for that niche when you carry out your in-depth keyword research.

Want to see an example?

Type in insurance and select 500. Scroll to the bottom. The count figure when I checked was 180 for the last phrases in the list. That means there are a huge number of potential phrases for the niche of insurance.

Another example. Type in barbie doll. The last phrases in the list has a count of 3, which means this niche has far fewer potential phrases than the insurance niche.

A final example. Type in cadbury chocolate (the best chocolate in the world in my opinion).

Only 52 rows were returned when I checked (not the 500 that were obtained in the previous examples), meaning this would not be such a good niche.

Before finishing our profitability and demand research, there is one other check I like to carry out. How much are these phrases attracting at the Pay Per Click search engines?

Type in hair removal at Wordtracker again.

Scroll to the bottom.

Click on the perform a competition search.

Select Overture and click the proceed button.

You will need to type in the security code displayed, into the small box before you can get the results.

Scroll to the bottom of the results.

At the time of writing, the top bids for hair removal related phrases were nearly $40.

Wow. Companies are prepared to pay nearly $40 per click at the search engines for some phrases related to this niche.

This niche is hot, and potentially very profitable.

Putting Adsense on our site could prove VERY profitable.

To read more about how you can avoid being labelled as a "thin" affiliate, download your free copy of "Creating 'Fat' Affiliate Sites".

How To Create An Effective Internet Business Website

Writen by Matt Bacak

An Internet business can rise and fall based on more then just the quality of the product or service they provide. Marketing your product or service can make or break your Internet business because if you don't promote your business effectively then you could end up with a garage full of extra inventory. Therefore it is imperative that you create a website campaign for your Internet business to avoid financial loss and the feeling of failure.

How should you create your website? What information should you put on your website? First of all let's change the singular "website" to the plural "websites". Yes, you should have more then one website for your Internet business. Many Internet website and graphic designers will advise that you have one major website for your Internet business. This is not the way to go.

Why? There are many reasons, but one major reason is that if you have only one website then you are barraging your potential customer with too many options. Having a long list of links on your website can drive your customer away from actually purchasing your product or service. Providing information regarding your company can be helpful, but also may become a distraction for potential customers.

How many websites should you have for your Internet business? It varies depending on your product and scope of services, however in general you should have the following three main websites: a branding website, a sales letter website, and a power squeeze website page.

What is the purpose of these three main websites? What information should you place on these websites? The major goal is to minimize the number of distractions on each website which can lead to a higher sales conversion rate. Create a website environment in which one major task is assigned to each website.

Following is information regarding the purpose and content necessary for the three major types of websites.

1) Branding Website: The purpose of the branding website is to brand you and/or your Internet business. Successful businesses create a marketing brand that a customer associates with their company. The sole purpose of the branding website is to promote your brand. You do not sell your product or service at this website.

2) Sales Letter Website: The sole purpose of this website is to sell your product or service. You can provide purchasing information on this website and allow your customers to purchase directly from this website.

3) Power Squeeze Website Page: The sole purpose of this website is to capture personal customer information. When customers reach this page you should request their first name, last name, and email address at a minimum. It is vital to capture this personal information as it enables you to build a relationship with the customer and market to them over and over in the future. The Power Squeeze Website Page should come right before the Sales Letter Website.

Incorporate these three websites into your Internet business websites to capture personal information, create customer relationships, and create an environment that effectively promotes sales conversions. Skip the old way of doing business with one website and diversify your portfolio of Internet business websites for financial gain and business success.

Matt Bacak, Entrepreneur Magazine e-Biz radio show host became a "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to Retire From Your Job This Year and Still Make More Money Than the Average Medical Doctor... You Can Do It Once You Know the Proven Steps Outlined here! ==> http://www.internetmillionairemind.com

Make A Habit Of Analyzing Other Sites For Form Function And Design

Writen by Craig Dawber

The need of the hour is to analyze successful websites so as to obtain clues on designing and marketing your own site. Since this is a business that is growing in leaps and bounds, it is necessary to learn the good aspects to ensure you adapt all good aspects of the craft. While this industry is still in its infancy, the prospects are very good and this appears to be a business that is here to stay.

Aspects to Assess.

While browsing the internet and coming across sites that offer subscriptions, make a habit of analyzing them for their functionality, their design and structure. Some of the components that must be assessed are:

1. What is your initial reaction to the site?

A site has a positive effect on you when it meets your specific requirements. Many internet users do not like to be distracted by banners and advertisements. These are considered as distractions and therefore, many sites are constructed in a user friendly manner. These are constructed to give information to those who seek information on 'need to know' basis. The links and directories are available but require proactive steps from the user to access.

2. Does the site make a statement in terms of what it is meant for?

The site must make a statement in terms of its reason for being. A simple button 'About Us' provides information such as Who are they? Why are they here? and What do they want from you?

3. Has the Subscription Button placed prominently?

When the site requires you to subscribe, the information for subscription as well as costing should be prominently available. When you want people to subscribe, it should be made easy for them. The pricing page and payment details should be placed in several locations. Some sites place a Subscribe button on every content page that is made available to the public.

4. Are security aspects looked after?

The most important issue to look at is whether you are entering your personal information on a secure page. There are many sites that require you to enter your credit card number and information on an insecure page. This can lead to misuse of your important information. The best way to look or confirm if the site or subscriber page is secure is to look if the page has a SSL certificate. This can be confirmed by a small gold lock that appears at the bottom right hand corner of the browser when using Internet Explorer or a solid key in a small blue block appears that is available in Netscape Navigator. Another way to confirm this is by checking the site address; the "http" in the url changes to "https".

5. When you subscribe do you have to wait for an email with your username and password or do you get immediate access?

A great way to attract and keep subscribers is that they should not wait when they subscribe. As soon as they subscribe, they should be able to access the information they have paid for. To attract subscribers, do not make them wait.

These are some of the aspects that must be assessed when looking at sites that require subscription. These will allow you to design your site for users who are internet savvy, and can spot weaknesses without any effort. The design of the site should be catering to a customer base that is accustomed to using the internet and does not tolerate weakness in design and execution.

A great example would be to consider the internet as an expressway where these tips are exit ramps on which you do not want your customers. The site should be so designed that the customer is propelled towards the tool gate, is able to pay tool easily and can gain access to an unrestricted road beyond.

This article was written by Craig Dawber of smarket-associates.com Need advice and guidance with your online business check out the resources found in this website.

7 Easy Steps To Making Your Own Home Business Web Site

Writen by Bina Omar

Deciding to create a website for your home business is one of the best ways to maximize your business success. However, as a home business owner, you probably don't have any expertise in website creation, nor the money to hire an expert. The good news is that this by no means that you can't have a professional, functional, and appealing website of your own at an affordable price.

The trick is to know how to proceed, and what tools to use.

The following are 7 easy steps to get your own website off the ground with little or no experience.

* Step 1: Plan your web site

This is the stage where you decide the purpose of your website, what it will contain, and what keywords you need to focus on in order to attract the most people. You may even want to start thinking about the layout of the site at this point.

Before you go ahead, you must at least know what your site is going to be about and what you're planning to do with it. Planning is probably one of the more boring parts of the web building process, but nevertheless, remains to be one of the most important.

* Step 2: Register a Domain Name

Once you've done that, you can start thinking about your domain name. These days, you can get a domain name for as little as $8.95 a year . Getting your own domain name is one of the most important investment you'll ever make for your web site.

You can purchase your domain from any registrar on the net. If you're not familiar with any, check out: http://www.GoDaddy.com

Decide on an appropriate domain name that is easy to spell, easy to say, and isn't too long to be impractical, then register it. Your own domain name can instantly give you a professional aura even before your customers reach your web site.

* Step 3: Choose a web host

The next thing to do is to rent some space on a server that is permanently connected to the internet i.e. sign up for a web hosting account. Decide upon an affordable, reputable, secure, and well equipped web host company that can meet your requirements of web site design, minimum downtime, and reliability.

Depending on your requirements, you may want to check out the web host's support system, connection speed, storage space, data transfer limit, e-mail features, FTP access, CGI and PHP support and database access.

There are plenty of web hosts out there. Do your homework BEFORE you sign up with one. And when you first start up with a new web host, sign up using the monthly payment plan first. That way, if you hate their services, you can always switch after the first month.

If you're in a hurry, I recommend signing up with http://www.website-webhost.com. They're not the cheapest host out there but they provide many extras that could prove to be time savers to home businesses.

* Step 4: Search for a web site template

Okay! You have an idea of what your web site is about, you've registered a domain name and you've found a great web host. Now, it's time to look for the perfect web site template.

Why?

Well … because it's a lot easier to start off with templates. And you can get a much more superior web design quality.

Web site templates are created by web design experts. who has the experience and skill to know what works and what doesn't. They've tried and tested more site designs than we'll ever want to see in our lifetime.

There are thousands of web site templates out there at our disposal. Just go to Google.com and type in "web site template".

You can choose free web site templates, or you can pay a one time membership to a template reservoir, or you can even pay per template. It's up to you.

My favourite is http://www.TemplateMonster.com.

* Step 5: Get some tools

Once you have a your desired web site template, you will need to get some tools to make changes to the template.

Since you don't know any HTML, you'd want to get web authoring software that will allow you to work 'visually'. What you need is a WYSIWYG web design software. And just in case, you decide to learn HTML in the future, get one that will also work in code mode.

There are many softwares out there today. The more popular ones include Dreamweaver and Frontpage. If you're after a free software, you may want to check out NVU.

You'll also need a web graphics software. Not so much to create a graphic but more to customize the images in your web template. To add labels on the buttons, for example.

A popular software is PaintShopPro. If you're after a free software, try out the GIMP.

* Step 6: Customize your web site template

Now that you have your web site template and your tools, all you need to do is customize the template.

When customizing a template, all you really have to do is replace the template content with your own. You may also need to customize some of the images. Usually, this would be the logo. Some templates uses button images as the navigation. You may want to add text to these buttons to set up your navigation.

Once you've customized the template, just upload it to your "rented" server space and you're live on the internet.

* Step 7: Learn HTML to customize further

Although you don't have to, I highly recommend that you learn a bit of HTML. You don't have to master it but knowing some basic HTML will take you a long way when it comes to having more control over your web site.

Follow these 7 easy steps and you'll have a smooth and affordable entry into the world wide web.

Copyright 2006 Bina Omar

Want to know more about building your own websit?. Sign up to WebBriefcase and check out Bina's free web building video tutorials at http://www.webbriefcase.com.au/ or mailto:subscribe@webbriefcase.com.au

Five Essential Questions To Answer Before Creating Your First Or Secondor Third Website

Writen by Cathy Goodwin

Right after the thought, "I need a website," people usually say, "I need a web designer!" Actually, before even whispering "web design," you need to answer these five questions in as much detail as possible. Once you're clear on your strategy, you can provide better information to your web designer. And most likely you'll be pleased with your new home on the web.

1. What is the purpose of your website?

When you're well-known through face-to-face contacts, your website will serve as an additional source of information to potential customers. You may need only a basic "calling card" site: a list of contact information, coming appearances and basic brochure copy.

On the other hand, your website may be your primary revenue source. In that case, you'll need to direct visitors to your "for sale" section and come up with a plan to take their money. You'll need a shopping cart and perhaps a merchant account.

2. Who will be your ideal target market?

Draft at least two hundred words describing your ideal client. Where does he live, work and play? Where does she eat and shop? What are your client's goals and hobbies? You're the psychologist: create as many details as possible. Some copywriters recommend assigning your target a name so you can see the person behind the credit card.

3. What action do you want everyone to take?

Your home page copy drives your website visitors to a clear, unambiguous target. Keep them on your site as long as possible and suggest a specific action. Buy an ebook. Sign up for your ezine. Sign your guest book. Make it easy for visitors to take this action, placing forms and links right on your home page.

4. How will you maintain your site?

Many new website owners budget the cost of web design and a year of web hosting. But that's only the beginning. A website that's unchanged will grow cobwebs. It's easy to tell when you've landed on a website where nobody's home. Something's broken. The whole place looks abandoned.

You'll need to replace broken links, fix spelling errors, add updates to your schedule, and a whole lot more. And in my experience, your website will look different after five or six months. Time for a new overhaul! That's why I say, "You need to become your own web designer, marry your web designer, or be prepared to pay."

5. How will you promote your site?

A website without promotion is like a 747 flying around the world without any passengers: expensive and useless! You can write articles as free content, swap links and submit your site to the search engines. Fill your website with content, update the content regularly, and write your copy with an eye to your keywords.

You'll have to budget time for promotion or hire an assistant. Planning ahead can help you create a website that makes your job easier.

About The Author

Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is an author, speaker and career/business consultant, helping midlife professionals take their First step to a Second Career. http://www.cathygoodwin.com.

"Ten secrets of mastering a major life change" mailto:subscribe@cathygoodwin.com

Contact: cathy@cathygoodwin.com 505-534-4294

Functions And Subroutines In Asp

Writen by Rob Collyer

Functions and Subroutines in ASP

If you read our Tutorial on Include Files (SSI) then you learned how to encapsulate ASP code within include files and the benefits it brings us.

As developers, we should endeavour to make our lives easier wherever possible... no one wants to re-invent the wheel after all.

Functions and Subroutines exist to not only save us time, but to bring power to our ASP.

They are just another way of encapsulating code, but have a lot more functionality than just 'saving some code for later'.

First, let's look at Functions... Imagine a balloon salesman in the street. We've all seen them they require one piece of information when you buy a balloon, the colour.
Let say we asked for a red balloon... The balloon salesman armed with this 'information' then does a pretty basic action... he hands you the balloon. The balloon you received is a direct result of the information you gave the balloon seller.

Functions are just the same... they return to you a value based on the information you provided. Lets look at an example Function: -

<%
Function getBalloon(strColour)

Dim Tempstr

strColour = lcase(strColour) 'This converts the value lowercase.
Select Case strColour

Case "red" Tempstr = "Here is your red balloon"

Case "yellow" Tempstr = "Here is your yellow balloon"

Case "green" Tempstr = "Here is your green balloon"

Case "blue" Tempstr = "Here is your blue balloon"

Case Else Tempstr = "Sorry, we have sold out of that Colour"
End Select

getBalloon = Tempstr
End Function
%>

A Function is passed some information. The information we pass a Function, is known as an 'argument'. The information we get back from a Function is known as the 'return value'. Whilst a Function can have many arguments, it can only have one return value.

Let us look at one more example: -

<%
Function calcTax(amount, taxrate)

Dim Tempvar

Tempvar = amount * (taxrate / 100)

CalcTax = Round(Tempvar, 2) 'round the result to 2 decimal places
End Function
%>

Again, another basic example. We should notice this time that the Function accepts two arguments.

By now, we have some idea of how to write a Function. How do we use one?
Let me show you now how we can use the calcTax example.

<%
shoppingbill=goodsTotal + calcTax(goodsTotal,17.5)
Response.Write "Your shopping came to £" & goodsTotal
Response.Write "
VAT amount = £" & calcTax(goodsTotal)
Response.Write "Total Amount Due = £" & shoppingbill
%>

Above you see the example function in action... easy huh!

I have tried to make understanding Functions as easy as possible... Understanding a Subroutine (Sub) is now going to be easy for you. Imagine a block of code that performed some instructions based on information you gave it...
Sounds very much like a function, doesn?t it? Well this time, we do not get anything back. A sub does NOT pass back information it just uses the data we give it for some purpose.

I will use only one example of a Sub, and in the same example make use of the sub: -

<%
Sub Bday(strName, intAge)

Response.Write "Happy Birthday " & Name

Response.Write ", You are " & intAge & " years old today"
End Sub

'now, call the sub
bDay "Joe",26
%>

The above Sub, demonstrates my point. We put something in, it performs an action (in this case writing to the screen), but nothing is returned to us in the code. One thing that REALLY IS important when using a sub, is that we do not put brackets around the arguments... Because we do not have a return value we do not need brackets and in this case, if we try we will get an error.

Well, that just about concludes this article. We should by now be writing efficient code with the use of Functions and Subs. Don?t forget that if you use your functions and subs in multiple pages then you should really store them within include files for reasons of easy maintenance and better performance.

Rob Collyer, experienced with 20 years programming knowledge and site administrator of www.webforumz.com - Copyright 2003-2004

Beginners Guide To Starting Websites

Writen by Richard Pettinger

If you are relatively new to the idea of using the internet to sell your business it can be a little intimidating as there are many new things to learn however it is definitely learning about a few basic pointers before beginning, as it can save a lot of time in the long term.

1. Most traffic on the internet comes through Search Engines. The big three are Yahoo, MSN and Google, but Google is by far the most popular search engine. When building a website it is important to always keep in mind search engines. If you design your site well the search engines will reward you with a free stream of potential customers.

2. Choose your site name carefully. If you are wishing to sell Cycling accessories it is best to have the word "cycling" in the title. cyclingandcycles.com The actual title of a site is one of the most important criteria in determinining your ranking in the search engines.

3. There are no quick fixes to getting high rankings in Google. You have to be patient. New sites tend to get "sandboxed" for the first 6 months. This means that whatever you do you will get very low rankings, there is nothing you can do about this you have to be patient.

4. Be wary of SEO companies who promise you quick fixes. In some cases Google will ban sites who try to "cheat" the system. Generally it is best to avoid getting 1000s of free links from link farms. At best the links have no weight at worst Google may penalise you. There are many things that you can do that can cause your site to be banded. Some of them are included here http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html but there are more. Basically search engines dislike people who try to use fancy tricks to get artificially high rankings.

What makes a Successful Site.

1. Good Quality Content. This is the most important. If you have interesting pages that are clearly laid out, it will attract customers, and also encourage people to link to your sit. For example if you have a website selling cycling equipment it might be useful to have a section on your site with articles on Cycle training or advice on cycle maintenance. These articles could also involve the use of product placement. However if it is unique content the search engines will like it and also potential customers will be more inclined to visit your site.

2. Inward Links. This is when another website offers a hyperlink to your website. It is kind of like democracy. The search engines see a link as a kind of vote. If more sites "vote" for you then it implies your site is good. However links vary in quality. Links from powerful, large sites like the BBC, University sites .edu will count more than from a richardsblog.co.uk. Links are also more valuable if they are from related sites as well. There are various techniques for getting inbound links. This will be discussed separately.

Reciprocal Linking is when you link to one site and then they agree to link back to you. This used to be a big strategy a few years ago because it was a way to get many inbound links. However the search engines have cottoned on to this and have found ways to discount linking in this manner. One way links are the best. However reciprocal linking can help a little if it is from related sites.

3. High Rankings and Traffic This is related to 1 and 2 if you have good quality content and inbound links you will get more traffic from search engines. However there are other techniques you can use. Choosing your keywords is very important. If you try to get a high ranking for a phrase like "gambling" or "cycling" It will be virtually impossible to get into the top 10 or 20 (something useful to remember if you wanted to sell your site).

However although you may not get a ranking for bikes, if you choose a more specific phrase that people search you may have more look. For example you could choose a phrase like "winter cycling tops" or "Carbon Fibre Bikes" For these phrases it will be much easier to break into the all important top 10. thus you can get people entering your site through different pages catering to a specific target phrase. It is important to choose a niche for your product and specialise in that area.

4. Good Layout/ Design. There is a lot to be said for simplicity in designing websites. Sufers tend to be impatient and may not spend much time on a website. You have to engage them pretty quickly. Also it is worth remembering that search engines don't reward fancy graphics or flash graphics, they reward text.

5. Develop a loyal customer base. It is worth investing in developing a good customer base and emailing list. It is good if you can give a weekly newsletter or something to encourage people to subscribe

Richard is an economics teacher in Oxford and member of the Sri Chinmoy Centre. He edits a website about the activities of Sri Chinmoy Richard is also a keen cyclist he competes in cycling races across the UK.

Why Local Service Companies Should Have A Website

Writen by John Daniell

The Internet is being used by local service business to improve sales today. Sales are improved because a website gives a company more credibility and in some cases generates leads.

Improving Credibility with a Website
The more a prospect can feel like they know you, the more comfortable they will be to calling you for assistance. Most yellow page and other ads only give a limited amount of space to share information with the prospect. An Internet website allows you (or your competition) to easily and cost effectively share this information.

Websites that help a prospect feel comfortable calling a local service business often include: a description of the products and services you offer, what makes you different from similar companies, and testimonials from past clients.

Websites don't need to be fancy or flashy. Most people prefer the simple informative websites that makes it easy to find the information they're seeking.

You can direct people to your website by publishing it's address everywhere (yellow page ads, truck signs, uniforms, business cards, letterhead, invoices, etc).

Summary
If you can direct prospects to a nice website, you'll have more credibility and therefore orders from them.

Generating Leads with a Website
When Americans need information, 65% of them go online to an Internet search engine before going to the yellow pages or any other median. This is amazing when you consider the Internet browser in its current form was introduced 10 years ago in 1995.

Adding "Cincinnati" to a search will give you information about jobs, real estate, hotels, used cars, etc in the Cincinnati area. Over time, people will be looking for Cincinnati electrical contractor, Cincinnati muffler repair, etc on the Internet. Google has also been testing local search functionality for over a year. When this technology is generally available, local searching will increase even more.

There may or may not be people looking for your business in your area today. A website optimization company can look at the numbers for your industry in your area and tell you if people are looking for you or not.

Summary
People may or may not be looking for your business locally on the Internet today? They will in the future. It makes sense to put a quality website in place for credibility today. It will then be in place for when people start looking for your specialty online in the future.

About Swordfish Computer Solutions
Swordfish Computer Solutions helps companies with website design, optimization, and other computer services. They can be reached at 513.683.2136 or http://www.SwordfishCS.com.

Css Maximum Benefits

Writen by Zoran Makrevski

What is CSS?

CSS is a simple file which controls the visual appearance of a Web page without compromising its structure. Using CSS we can control our font size, font color, link color and many other attributes on our web page. This will make our HTML code much more readable and the page size will be reduced.

Why to use it and how to use it properly

If you don't use CSS on your web pages and you have many tables and content on them, chances are that your HTML file size will be quite big. Fact is that we live in a busy world, and people are not will to wait more than 5 seconds web page to load.

From the other side some web developers implement the CSS on wrong way. They write their CSS in HTML code of the page, like this:

<html>

<head>

<title>My Page</title>

<style>

A

{

font-family: Verdana;

font-size:8pt;

color:black;

text-decoration:none

}

</style>

What is wrong with this technique? Well, imagine that you have site with more than 50 pages. One day, you decide that you want to change font color and colors of the links on your site. You will have to edit ALL the pages on your site, and do to that you will need time, because you place your CSS in your web page.

Better way is to save your visual attributes in separate, external CSS file, and to link that file with your page like this:

<html>

<head>

<title>My Page</title>

<link href="myStyle.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">

Using this technique, you can change the look of your site within minutes, regardless of the number of pages, because your visual attributes are saved in ONE external CSS file. Edit that file, and you are done.

Benefits

Which are the benefits of using CSS? List is quite long and I will list here only the most important.

• Your web page will load faster
• Web page will become more search engine friendly
• You can change you site appearance within minutes
• You can write separate CSS file for handheld devices which will be called up instead of the regular CSS file
• You can forget about creating printer friendly version of your site using separate CSS file when user chooses to print the web page.

Avoiding standard HTML commands like:

<font color="#0000ff"><font size=2>Product</font></font></font>

will help us to reduce file size, but that is not the only benefit. Using CSS word product in this example will be moved more close on the top of the document. Search engine will pick up more content and less code.

Imagine that you have 3 columns table on your page. When you see the code, you will notice that first come code for your table, and after that it come your content. Positioning your 3 columns using CSS instead of standard inline elements:

<table width="90%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">

<tr>

<td width="381" height="150" valign="top" bgcolor="FFEDD4">

My Product

</td>

<td height="150" valign="top" bgcolor="FFEDD4">

When CSS is used, your code might look like this:

<div id="leftcontent">

My Product

</div>

Again your code is much more clear, and your content is moved on the top of your document, making your HTML page search engine friendly, and reducing your file size.

Content is one of the most important factors in Search Engine Optimization, and you will benefit with removing the unnecessary code in your HTML and create search engine friendly web page.

Validate it

Browser war is far behind us. Reality is that most of the people today use Internet Explorer, but you should try to be on safe side and ensure that your CSS code is valid. Not all browsers interpret the CSS on same way. You can validate your CSS here: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/

About The Author

Zoran Makrevski is founder and CEO of SEO.Goto.gr.

Since 1998 has focused on E-Commerce and attempts to bring more traffic to the customer sites bring him in the SEO industry, and he is running his own company today.

Search Engine Positioning Firm

SEO.Goto.gr

Build A Web Site Build A Great One The Easy Way

Writen by Mike Dougherty

If I can do it, anyone can!

Before I put together my own web sites, I didn't have any internet experience and the thought of having to learn a new language called "HTML" sent chills up my spine.

Doing Nothing Is A Sure Way To Fail

But I knew that if I just sat there and let my fear of the unknown keep me from going forward, I'd never see my dream come to life.

Surfing The Net For Answers

So I started doing research on what it takes to build a web site and I surfed the net until smoke was coming out of my computer mouse.

I discovered two important things while searching high and low on the world wide web.

First, there are tens of millions of dollars being spent by a whole bunch of people who are all trying to convince you that they have the "secret" to success on the internet. And the noise level of all those voices talking to you at once can give you an acute case of information overload.

How Do You Build And Market A Web Site?

You need a way to build your web site, a company to host your web site (meaning a company that puts your site on the internet), and a company that can provide marketing services to get your site to all the search engines and directories so people surfing the internet can find you among the other millions of web sites out there is cyberspace.

Build A Web Site - So What's The Answer?

First of all there are no secrets to success on the internet. Like anything else, there is a learning curve, but the information is readily available if you're willing to spend some time discovering a few basic principals.

Building - Hosting - Marketing Your Web Site

The web site addresses that follow this article have some information that you may find very helpful in your search for a company that offers site building, site hosting and site marketing services.

Build A Web Site - Choosing A Service

There are several internet companies that offer site building, site hosting and site marketing services. I found one that I am 100 percent happy with for a number of reasons.

In making your decision, look for a company that does all the technical stuff for you and at no extra charge.

You should be able to concentrate on building your web site using an easy system that will help you produce a professional looking web site easily and quickly.

The company you choose should also provide some marketing services at no additional charge.

And the company you choose should provide you with on-going information updates, forums for discussing issues with other users and should provide you with detailed traffic reports so you can clearly see how well your site is doing.

Build A Web Site - Time And Money Saved

Now we're talking... With one company offering an all-in-one approach you don't have to evaluate and put together an intricate, expensive package of software tools!

Proof That They Work

The company you choose to build, host and market your web site needs to show you proof that their system works.

Are the other sites hosted by their company doing well and are a respectable percentage of them listed in those coveted top ten search engine positions? If they aren't, your chances are probably not so hot either.

Life Impact

Your web site can be a part-time or full-time venture and it should be a fun, creative and challenging experience.

And if you're looking to make some money with your web site and willing to put in some effort toward that goal, the company you choose to work with needs to play a big part in your success.

Build A Web Site - The Bottom Line

As I said before, there are several companies out there that provide site building tools, web hosting and internet marketing services. I found one that I'm 100 percent happy with and by doing a little investigating you can find one too... Just don't let all that internet noise get to ya.

Mike Dougherty is the successful webmaster of fun kid birthday parties.com, to learn more visit http://www.fun-kid-birthday-parties.com/how-I-built-this-site.html

Why 99 Of All Business Websites Dont Work

Writen by Brian K. Johnson

Despite the estimated hundreds of millions of websites on the Internet and the enormous sums of money paid to develop them the unfortunate fact is that most small business web sites simply do not work. By do not work I mean that they do not deliver on what is expected or promised. There are many reasons why websites don't meet the expectations of business owners and even more reasons why the promises of the Internet don't ring true but in general there are some very common mistakes that companies make when deciding to build or redesign a website.

This article will discuss some of the very basic errors that small businesses make and how to avoid some of the pitfalls of website development (see www.nikosoftware.com for more information). Most small to medium sized business (SMB) owners intuitively know that using the Internet as a marketing tool for their business will pay large dividends. Unfortunately, most SMB owners don't know how the web works or principles of e-marketing so they will make their first in a series of big mistakes by looking through the yellow pages and picking one of the many web developers listed.

This decision is usually based on the fact that they have a desire to work with a local "web developer" on Main Street, USA not knowing that this limits their own ability to have access to much more qualified professionals who may be located elsewhere. The SMB owner will generally meet up with one of these web developers who will get their head spinning with technical terms like HTML, C++, Java, databases, MS SQL and so on. Developers tell the business owner what is needed and extract their payment. However, web developers seldom have any idea of how Internet marketing works or how to drive profits to your business using the web.

This is the single biggest reason why most small business web sites fail. The local web developer will almost never explain to the business owner that their web site should be self-sustaining. This means that your website should be making you money not costing you money. Web sites should be listed on your balance sheet, not simply as an expense item. Web developers also never really explain how to achieve measurable results from your web site. The reason comes less from the fact that they are withholding information or just not concerned with the level of their work, but rather that most web development companies, due to the very nature of their focus, simply don't know how to do these things. Their job, as they see it, is to build or rebuild your website from scratch with the focus on coding only.

Rarely do they take advantage of dynamic modular development, which provides scalability and integrated functionality that reflects the individual business needs and goals of their SMB client. This would mean that the business owner, based on their changing business needs, would be able to quickly and easily create interactive functionality on their own, without having to re-engage the web development company. Unfortunately, web development companies want you to have to come to them every time you need to change something on the web or add functionality, like a simple form or a video clip or even e-commerce.

The business owner must rely on the web development company for every small task that must take place or hire an expensive staff member who is trained to do these functions. This is usually someone who used to work for a web development company. The cycle continues and the business owner is never able to break free of the constant costs associated with a web site that wasn't built properly in the first place. Frustration sets in and eventually the site goes stale and the business owner will begin to focus their attention elsewhere until another web development company approaches with a whole new set of promises and the cycle begins all over again.

Sometimes a business may have a great site with great functionality but are mislead by another promise of web development firms, who will claim that they need to have a number one position on search engines in order to reap the benefits of the Internet.

Holding the number one position on in the search engines doesn't matter!

Everyone has heard the story before… "I will get your company listed on the top of the search engines." But, as you might guess, everyone cannot be at the top of the list and true professionals in the business know that. Search engines have very strict rules and complex algorithms, which change often. Actually, being in the third or fourth position is often more desirable and can generate greater profits for a progressive company. The goal should not be to be number one on the search engines but rather to generate high visitor levels on all of your web pages not just the home page. This means that your web site must have functionality or the ability to interact with your visitors. Web site functionality is what delivers the much-desired result not fist place ranking on the search engines. So what that everyone visits your website, but if you are unable to convert those visitors into customers what good does it really do? You are spending money and not making money.

If your site has been unattended for awhile it is generally because most web developers are just that, developers. Once they have finished a site they are off to the next development project. What small businesses need is a software company or an Internet consultant with a focus on web development. Having functional software on your website to attract and convert visitors into customers is of supreme importance. Software allows the non-technical business owner to manage or easily delegate the management of their web site to other non-technical personnel. This eliminates the need to have to continually go to web development companies for content and content changes.

For example, most businesses measure sales activity and distribution channels on a monthly basis. The business website is one of these sales channels. Having the ability to monitor the number of visitors and not just "hits" is crucial. What search engine did the visitor come from, what pages did the visitor enter on or exit on? This is key information that will allow a business to measure their progress against their competition. The bottom line is to think of your web site as a key part of your business and in so doing looking for a company that can provide a complete solution not just a web development company with a techie name.

If a business chooses a software company that integrates a complete and scalable solution with all of the business goals within the managing, design and hosting of your site, then the goals will be met. If not, the web site will not work.

To receive a free report on how to begin development of your company web site visit the resource pages at www.nikosoftware.com

Brian Johnson is Vice President of Niko Software Corp. and has consulted with over 300 companies on maximizing web tools to increase profits and web exposure. http://www.nikosoftware.com

How To Make Sense Of Your Websites Statistics

Writen by Donald Nelson

In the early days of the Internet it was common to visit a web site and see a counter informing you that "you are the 118,456th visitor to this site", and various webmasters would proudly talk of how many "hits" their sites were getting. Now, things have changed and you will mostly find counters on amateur sites, and wiser webmasters now know that the term "hits" doesn't really mean much.

The term hit refers to a request for a file on your web site. When someone visits your web page, they request your URL, but in order to see the page, they also have to get all the graphic files that are located on your page. So, one visitor to your page may be requesting 25 different files, and thus you have 25 hits.

The counters of the Internets early days only measured whether someone requested a particular page where the counter was located. They did not give any indication of what the visitor activity was like on the other pages of the site. Those counters often did not differentiate between a "unique visitor" and total visitors. The number of unique visitors is the number of different people (as measured by their computer's distinct IP number) as opposed to total visitors, which could even be only one person visiting the page many times. (I used to visit my first site a few times a day to see how I was doing!)

So what then is the professional and up-to-date way of gathering statistics and what are the statistics that really count?

Web servers keep logs of all visitor activity. When someone visits your site, he or she requests the various files on the site. The log records all of these requests and records other vital information as well including: the referrer page (or the last page where the surfer was prior to entering your site), what operating system the surfer is using, what screen resolution he or she is using, what search terms he or she made to request your site and a lot of other vital data that could be crucial to your ability to have Internet success or failure.

If you would look a the raw logs of your site you will see a long text file with the date of each entry and would see a few interesting items but you would not be able to put them together very well due to the volume of information. (a line of text for each file requested). There are log analysis programs that do this work for you. One way of using them is to download the log file from your server. Your host should be able to tell you where the file is located, and you can retrieve it using an FTP program. The log file is then fed into the analysis program and the results are generated. There are many programs that do this work. I got started with a simple program (open web scope-and there is free version available). Alternatively, your host may have an analysis program preinstalled on the server, and the results may be able to be seen online (some hosts have the Webalizer program installed for their client's use)

So what are the things to look for when analyzing the logs?

You should look for the number of unique visitors per day. This will give you an idea of how many people are viewing your site and will give you a broad overview of how you are doing.

Another indication of overall activity on the site is the number of "page views" per day.. Unlike hits, page-views refers to distinct html files or pages that were requested. Suppose you get 200 unique visitors per day, and there are about 2000 page views per day, then you can infer that your average visitor is viewing 10 pages of your site.

Another indication of overall activity is the amount of bandwidth used, or to put it another way, the total of the amount of data that has been transferred per day. This will vary according to how many visitors you have, how many files they view, and of course the type of site you have. If your site is heavy with graphics, or if there are e-books and mp3s to download then the data transfer on your site will be higher than on a site with plain text. This is an important statistic to look at if you have bandwidth restrictions. If you are not worried about this, it is also a good figure to look at just to see the overall activity of the site.

After you have seen the overall activity, it is good to look at the specifics and find more about how your visitors are using your site and how they got to your site.

One of the things I am most interested to see is what are the most accessed pages, and least accessed pages on the site. There are many ways to use this particular piece of information. For example, hopefully your order page will show up in the top ten. If no one is making it to your order page then maybe that is the reason why you are not making any money from the site. Or by looking at this list you may find some pages that are unexpectedly popular, and then you can add more content of the same type.

Related to the popularity of pages is the "click path" through the site. You can see the order in which people visit the various pages of the site and this information may help you to set up your site in a better way. Related to this are the "entry" and "exit" pages. Where do people enter your website? You will be surprised to learn that many people do not enter through your main page. Your inner pages may be attracting much of your traffic, and by learning which pages are popular entry points, you can set up other pages, optimize them and use them to attract more visitors. People have to leave your site sometimes, but it is important to know where the exit points are, and the "exit pages" stat will show you where these pages are.

How did the visitors get to your site in the first place? The referrers list will tell you this information. A referrer is a web site where a visitor was just prior to reaching your site. You can see, first of all, that if you have 100 unique visitors in a day, and if 50 of them were referred, this means that 50 of them probably typed in your URL directly or clicked on an e-mail link or used a bookmark, while 50 of them came from search engines or links on other web sites. Here you will find out which search engines are sending you traffic. You will find out which of your links on other sites are performing well. By carefully looking at your referrers you can go to work on improving your overall promotion strategy.

Another interesting piece of information related to the referrers are the search terms that were used in the various searches. This statistic gives you an idea of what people are looking for when they visit your site. This information can give you an idea of whether you are getting the right kind of audience for your particular product or service.

Finally there is also technical information about your visitors. What type of browser are they using, what operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux) are they using? What screen resolution do they use? You have to make sure that your site can display well to fit the needs of the majority of your visitors.

This information can be obtained using many of the log analysis programs, and also some of the trackers which you can put on your site (for example www.extremetracker.com ) give some of this information. But remember that trackers often only give you the information about one page (where the tracker has been pasted in) If you want to get the total picture, the best way is to analyze the logs. By gathering and understanding this information and making changes to your site based on it, you may be able to increase the profitability and success of your web site.

© Copyright 2002, Donald Nelson, all rights reserved.

Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor, and social worker. He has been working on the Internet since 1995 and is the proprietor of A1-Optimization, http://www.a1-optimization.com, a firm providing search engine optimization, copywriting, reciprocal linking, and other web promotion services. He publishes a monthly ezine, A1-Web Promotion Tips, available at http://www.a1-optimization.com/newsletter.html

Let Your Customers Redesign Your Website

Writen by William Hanke

When you purchase a new item from a Yahoo! Store, you are asked if you'd like to provide feedback on the transaction. About two weeks after the initial purchase, an email from Yahoo! Stores shows up, asking you to provide feedback for the vendor. Whether your experience was good or bad, the opportunity is probably seized more often than not by customers.

Of course, I would bet that bad experiences are more likely to be posted than the good ones, but I'd bet the number is still substantial enough to affect the owner's website look and payment processes.

Does your website have a feedback form? Do you give your customers an opportunity to tell you how you did? Wouldn't those opinions help you shape your customer satisfaction and support foundations? I think so.

Your customer may have a great idea that would compliment your site, or a function that they would have liked (such as saving their information if they order often, so they don't have to fill in purchase forms over and over).

You can set up an automatic feedback email during the initial purchase, or you can send the customer a letter asking them to return to your site to provide information. Either way, this information can be valuable in making future visitors into customers!

Will Hanke is owner of Lighthouse Technologies, http://www.techlh.com a web design, programming and hosting company. He is also author of several software applications in use by companies across the US.

How To Get Visitors To Trust Your Web Site

Writen by Graham Jones

When you are standing in a store, looking at MP3 players and deciding which one to buy, it's not always the place you'd imagine you would be faced with the issue of how you trust people on the Internet. But that's exactly what happened to me yesterday.

I was in a large store in my home town of Reading, UK, looking for a hi-fi that would play MP3s and CD-RW. Behind me was a display of new plasma screen TVs. Now my plan was to look for the shape and size of hi-fi that appealed to me, then come home and find the cheapest price online. That clearly wasn't the plan for the couple behind me looking at the plasma screen TVs.

"Shall we get it?" the young woman asked her partner. "Why not?" he said, "It's a lot of money but at least we know if it goes wrong we can bring it back to the shop and they can deal with it. You can't do that on the Internet. At least in this shop I can look into the salesman's eyes and see if he's telling me the truth."

It's worthwhile reflecting that in spite of the huge success that many people have selling things online, most people do not buy from the Internet. Most people, like the man I overheard in the shop yesterday, would rather buy from a 'real person'.

Indeed, I came back from my shopping expedition yesterday to discover an email from someone on my mailing list. "Thank you for trying to sell me your ebook," he said, "but I've done a considerable amount of research about these things and I now know they are all a complete scam."

Trust - that's the issue Internet marketers have to face online. When we are face to face with a person trying to sell us something, we use body language, vocal cues and a host of other triggers to almost instantly determine whether or not we trust someone. Online, we don't have that opportunity. The psychological cues we rely on to determine trustworthiness do not feature on the Internet, which means we are much less likely to buy online.

Research on how we determine the trustworthiness of an individual has shown a surprising result. The main reason for saying someone can be trusted is not their apparent honesty. Instead, it is simply how much they appear to like us. The more someone shows they care for us, the more we trust them – even if they are actually lying.

For people trying to sell things online this means you need to make your web site more personal and use things like video and audio to create a greater personal connection with your visitors. It also means being up-front with customer service issues, like guarantees, returns and so on. You could also consider using scripts that allow you to include the visitor's name in the page they are viewing. The more personal you make the visitor's experience, the more they will be able to use their inbuilt psychological trust analysis system. And that means more business for you.

Graham Jones is a psychologist who has investigated the way people use the Internet. His research can help you make the most of the Internet, particularly if you are hoping to make money online.

Increase Your Traffic By Recovering Your Lost Visitors

Writen by Shelley Lowery

If you spend any time surfing the Internet, you've probably encountered a few error messages.

Error messages have numerous causes, such as misspellings, outdated links or internal server errors. When an error is encountered, your server will display specific generic error pages according to the error. These error pages are not only dead ends, but they are also very frustrating for your potential visitors.

When your visitors mistype your web address or click on an outdated link and receive the dreaded error page, they'll most-likely click on their back button and never return. However, you can recover a majority of your lost visitors simply by taking the time to create some customized, user friendly error pages.

As servers run different types of software and do not function in the same manner, there isn't a simple method for creating custom error pages that will work with every system. However, if you have your own domain and your site is hosted on a Unix/Linux server running Apache, this article will assist you in creating custom error pages.

If you're not sure what type of server you're on, visit the following web address to find out: http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/

Before we begin, keep in mind, editing your server files is serious business. Even one small typographical error can wreak havoc -- make sure you make a backup copy of any file you're planning to edit.

Guidelines for creating your error pages:

1. Create your error pages in standard HTML -- just as you would create any other web page for your site.

2. Don't alarm your visitors. Never include the word "ERROR" in large, bold text. Your visitors may immediately become alarmed and think they've done something to cause the error. Instead, be apologetic and encourage your visitors to click on the navigational links to locate additional resources and information.

3. Your error pages should look just like the rest of your web pages. Each error page should contain good navigational links, a search feature, and provide information in regard to the specific error they received.

If you'd like to see an example error page, visit the following web address: http://www.web-source.net/error.htm

Once you've created an error page, save it as the error name. For example, if you're creating a customized error page for a 400 Bad Request error, your page should be saved as 400.html.

Here are some of the more common errors:

400 Bad Request
401 Authorization Required
403 Forbidden
404 File Not Found
405 Method Not Allowed
500 Internal Server Error
501 Method Not Implemented
502 Bad Gateway
503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

Once you've created your pages, you'll need to access your server via FTP and create a new folder called "errordocs" where you store your HTML files. Upload your new error documents into your new folder.

Your next step will be to locate your .htaccess file and download it to your computer. (If you use FrontPage to publish your web pages, you cannot customize the .htaccess file, as FrontPage uses the .htaccess file. Editing the file may cause errors in your configuration.) The .htaccess file should be located on your server where you store your HTML files.

If the .htaccess file isn't visible, you can create one within a plain text editor. However, you must first make sure your server isn't configured to hide the file. Your FTP program should enable you to choose to display hidden files and folders on your server.

Once you've downloaded your .htaccess file, open it within a plain text editor, such as Note Pad, and add the following lines below any other text that may be present:

ErrorDocument 400 /errordocs/400.html
ErrorDocument 401 /errordocs/401.html
ErrorDocument 403 /errordocs/403.html
ErrorDocument 404 /errordocs/404.html
ErrorDocument 405 /errordocs/405.html
ErrorDocument 500 /errordocs/500.html
ErrorDocument 501 /errordocs/501.html
ErrorDocument 502 /errordocs/502.html
ErrorDocument 503 /errordocs/503.html

If you're creating your own .htaccess file, open a plain text editor and add the above lines.

When typing in the information, make certain you type it exactly as it appears above. You can include the error documents of your choice.

Once the file is complete, save it as .htaccess and upload it to your server, via FTP in ASCII mode, where you store your HTML files.

For additional information on File Transfer Protocol (FTP) you may visit: http://www.web-source.net/ftp_basics.htm

If you have a Windows operating system, you will be unable to save the file as .htaccess. You'll need to save it as htaccess.txt. Once you upload the file to your server, you can rename it to .htaccess.

That's all there is to it. When your visitors click on an outdated link, your custom error page will now be displayed.

Creating your own custom error pages is well worth the time and effort, as they will enable you to recover an unlimited number of your visitors. If you follow this step by step guide, you can have your pages up and running in no time.

Copyright © Shelley Lowery

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, "Web Design Mastery" (www.webdesignmastery.com) and "eBook Starter - Give Your eBooks the look and feel of a REAL book" (www.ebookstarter.com)

Visit www.Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to eTips and receive a copy of Shelley's acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies."

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook, or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.