Articles Especially For YOU!
- Why Slice and Dice to Create a Website?
- Slicing and Dicing To Create a Website
- Google Alerts
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 101 Part Three - Free Report
- Everything is going "2.0" - What does it mean?
- Hack Attack (Not Bill) - Continued...
- A Hack Attack Is Only Funny When It's Bill The Cat!
- Second Life - The Quest To Find Land
- Project Management - Organizing Your Website Part Two (Storyboarding)
- Project Management - Organizing Your Website Part One
- Marketing - "All Is Fair In Love And War"
- Viistors Short Attention Span
- The Explosion of Landing / Squeeze Pages
- Do Testimonials Add Value?
- The Law of Attraction and Web Design?
- Should You Create and EBook or Paperback Book?
- Getting To Know You
- Price Your Product Right
- Navigating Second Life - Updating As I Go
- Taking A Stab At Second Life
- Working Your Site Does Help!
- Are You Missing Out? Check Your Thank You Page!
- Is Your Website Not Working? Maybe Your Visitors Don't Trust You!
- Writing Content For Your Web Site
- Tips To Create A Strong Internet Presence - Part One
- Online Business Planning for 2007 - A Starting Point
- Alexa Ranking - Wow!
- Automated Article Submission.
- Is Your Site Missing In A Google Search?
- What is a Squeeze, Sales, Landing Page?
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 101 Part Two - Free Report
- Should You Continue To Submit Your Website To Search Engines?
- Creating Affiliate Websites and Making Money
- SEO and Coding
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 101 - Free Report
- Promoting Your Site Through Your Blog
- Joint Ventures - Building A Business
- We Are Going To Have A Page Rank Of 10!
- Created A Blog - Now How To Create More Traffic.
- SEO - White Hat Is Best!
- Web Stats. What Do They Mean?
- Get In The Top 10 Listings Guaranteed.
- Blogs/RSS Feed.
- Incorporating Keywords Into Your Website Content.
- Mail Merge Labels.
- Podcasts.
- Search Engine Optimization.
- Marketing: Reach Out and Touch Someone.
- WYSIWYG Programs
- Is Your Computer Slowing Down?
- Colors/Colours
- Choosing Your New Computer
- A Basic.
- Image Creation and Definition
Why Slice and Dice to Create a Website?
The shortest and simplest answer is the smaller the file size of the images used in a web page, the faster the page will display. This in itself is a good enough reason.
Website visitors traditionally have a very short patience span. Broadband's steady proliferation has not changed this. If anything, visitor expectations is now that pages should load instantaneously. At rate, the longer they have to wait for a page to display, the more likely it is you will lose them before they have viewed your offerings.
So how does slicing and dicing produce faster page display?
Have you ever seen a page with central table with shadows to make the table appear as if it were floating on a layer above the page? Here is an example using a site we developed: http://www.iaccweb.org/ . The left and right edges of the central table are tiny tiled vertically to produce the effect of a solid graphic. The slice is a very small file size, so takes much less time to display than if we had used a side graphic big enough to fill the required area. This brings up another reason - why we slice and dice images.
Scalability... By using a tiled image slice, it makes no difference how much content is in the page. It could on forever and the slice would be tiled to eternity. Using a tiled slice means you don't have to consider the amount of content. The design becomes stretchy, scalable to whatever content it is asked to contain. Another benefit of is this method stands the best chance visitors will enjoy a consistent look regardless of which web browser they have, what size monitor they have and what screen resolution they are using. You ensure a consistent look for the widest possible audience.
There are other good reasons why we slice and dice.
One of most important reasons is to increase accessibility for visitors using text reading software. Instead of their software reading a bunch of image tags, they get straight to what they want, your message, the content. When used properly, image slices, tiles, are not contained in a web page. They are instead, referenced from a stylesheet, which includes instructions on how to display your webpage's visual appearance. This among other benefits, allows you to remove all non-essential graphics from the page code. A non-essential graphic is one that doesn't add any meaningful content to the page. It's only there to make the page more visually appealing. So part of the art of slicing and dicing a web template from it's original graphic form is the decision making process of determining the essential from the non-essential graphics by envisioning how a text reader will navigate through your site.
This covers most of the most important reasons as to why we slice and dice, but there is one more I would like to briefly mention.
Slicing your graphics
Slicing your graphics (and referencing them from an external stylesheet) gives you the first basic level of protection (albeit slender) for your/clients' artistic property. It makes it more difficult for unscrupulous people to steal all the hard work you put into your artwork. Or at least make them work harder by having to download more pieces, reassemble them like a puzzle. This is called site scraping and is a serious problem currently. There are even several software creators who will sell your products who's one purpose is for stealing others websites! Another problem is some sites will actually try and use your work by linking to your image from their webpage, so it looks like it's on their site! You can make it hard for them by slicing up your images. You can also fight this kind of theft using tools available in the administration control area of your hosting service... But that's a topic for another article!
Happy 'slicing and dicing'... But if you try it watch you don't cut yourself!
Slicing and Dicing an Image to Create a Website
One process many clients don't understand is 'slicing and dicing'. When we first create a client's unique web template, the banner, side menu, etc., this is done as an image. In most cases it is not possible just to stick up and banner and have a background color with a light inner table, except with certain sales pages or ezine templates, for example.
We work with a client to come up with the image to mimic the general layout the client would like for their site. This image is then sliced and diced and placed in an html document. From there the menu and content are added.
Here is an example of slices:
The slices look like this when put into an html page:
Once this process is done it can be very time consuming to try and change something, for example, what appears to be straight text, because what looks 'whole' can actually be in 'parts'.
As you can see spending a lot of time to get the visual perfect right in the beginning is very important.
So now you know HOW we do this - now you may be wondering WHY we do this. Stay tuned for the next issue for the WHY :)
Google Alerts
How many of you use Google Alerts? How many of you have heard of Google Alerts?
Ok, for those that haven't heard of it, this is Google's definition:
"Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:
- monitoring a developing news story
- keeping current on a competitor or industry
- getting the latest on a celebrity or event
- keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams"
I signed up for Google Alerts a number of months ago to keep informed on new issues and stories in particular areas of interest for my business. I also signed up for a particular category to see if my site would show in the alert if I worked the site enough. A test to some degree, but very important when it comes to getting the word out about your business.
The particular category is Second Life and I started this site, Second Life Snippets on May 18, 2007 in WordPress. Second Life is certainly newsworthy. When you type in Second Life in Google you get 599,000,000 results. So you can see competition is stiff.
Today I received my normal daily Google Alert summary for Second Life and there was a post and link to my site under "Google Blogs Alert for: Second Life. I am very happy with this achievement. It shows you can get noticed and get out there if you work at it.
If you are interested, you can sign-up for Google Alerts here:
p.s. You may ask what does this have to do with business. Well my main purpose is to offer clients the ability to hold events in Second Life. Just imagine having, for example, a Bootcamp, at some lovely resort type setting. Attendees would not have to pay air fare, hotel, etc. This is definitely a possibility and I believe will become more and more of a realistic way of holding these type of events.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 101 Part 3 - Free Report
In our previous segments of this report, we discussed how you can realize a higher ROI by saving money on website update by using CSS, Cascading Style Sheets.
Saving money is making money, but in addition to saving you money, a web site that uses the minimum amount of code required to "make it all happen" gives additional money making advantages too!
MONEY MAKING ADVANTAGE
KEEP THOSE GOOGLEBOTS HAPPY (AND OTHER SEARCH BOTS TOO!)
Search engines send out automated software called "crawlers" or "spiders" to look through websites for content to list. Those crawlers have a lot of Internet to cover. It gets bigger every day and as it gets bigger the crawlers get less patient about the amount of code they have to wade through to extract what they came for, which is your content. Help the bots help your client/customer find you. Keep the code used to display the content as minimal as possible. This way they "crawl" more relevant, indexable content, and less code before they move on.
Currently crawlers are set to check the first 250 lines of code on a page and then move on to index another page. They index from the code view, not the text view you see. This is important to remember!
How does having a Cascading Style Sheet help maximize the amount of content the crawler indexes in the 250 lines it crawls?
Precise instructions on how to display your content delivered from a master instruction sheet will reduce the code needed to display your website. The spiders/crawlers will need to wade through less extraneous code and get to more of your content, and faster!
Another positive effect of reducing the amount of code needed to display a web page is more obvious, (maybe), but certainly no less important... Less code on a page results in it loading into a web browser more quickly. This makes your potential client / customer very happy. Visitors are not going to hire you to share your wisdom or buy your fantastic product if they have to wait too long for a page to load. Attention span, and patience margins, are "frightening" short... If your page is slow to load folks will just go somewhere else. You may think this is not as much of an issue with Broadband being available in more areas but it is. ( Important Note: my statistics from this month show that over 29% were on dialup - wow. So just imagine the lack of patience on dialup!!)
Even so, as our access speeds up our patience goes down.
Not all extra code is bad!
The idea is to maximize the amount of important information in a minimum amount of code (which equals time). There are many good reasons for extra code that do jobs that are not immediately obvious or visible just by looking at a web page. An example of 'good' extra code would be the "alt" attribute of an image which provides a description of the image, for visitors and for those visitors that are using accessibility utilities. They are very important and should even be considered mandatory for the benefit of folks who cannot see the page visually (for example). A crawler can also read the "alt" tag, so this is good code.
Using three colors of font, 3 font sizes in one sentence and over using bolding or italics is an example of bad code. (I can hear all the copywriters and / or marketers howling from here :-) Even if you turn the three font colors into styles, (in the master Cascading Style Sheet), it's still a bad idea from code point of view. If your product/service is worthy, do you really have to shout at people? (Don't get me started on animations :)
Jeepers... These web pages are more complicated than they look Batman!
Everything is going "2.0" - What does it mean?
There has been a lot of discussion about Web 2.0. You can find a great deal of information, and discussions, on Web 2.0.
However, I've noticed just about everything I read these days is using the phrase "2.0" I have seen Copywriting 2.0, Logo 2.0, Font 2.0, Voice 2.0, Mobile 2.0, eLearning 2.0, and in fact the other night I was watching "Family Jewels" and Gene Simmons (of KISS fame) stated, after removing his bandages from his face lift, "Gene Simmons - 2.0". Man EVERYTHING is going 2.0!!
So Exactly What Is "2.0"
Well a short definition of Web 2.0 includes, but is by no means limited to, blogs, tags, RSS, social bookmarking, and AJAX. Click here to read more from Wikipedia .
After reading the definition I think a very short clip from Wikipedia will work well as a general definition for "2.0" in relation to how so many different services, products and people can use "2.0":
<quote>
2.0" hints at an improved form
<end quote>
Overall, I think this is the latest catch phrase. However, if you look at a very basic concept of 2.0 I believe when it is used in such areas, outside of "web", such as coaching, copywriting, it means the next level, the next iteration, new tools.
If you want to read more on Web 2.0 Tim O'Reilly's "What Is Web 2.0 Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software" from a mere 2 years ago describes the turning point here.
**Is Your Site Web 2.0? - Find out!
Hack Attack (Not Bill) - Continued...
It appears that malware has been downloading to unsuspecting websites with Windows update (yikes!) Read an article about it here:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=printArticleBasic&articleId=9019118
Note: This is no doubt what happened to my site
The above article may have triggered the article in Web Pro News. In this issue it speaks to websites that contain "malware" whether they know it or not - AND - what happens when you get rid of the virus - AND - how Google treats these sites.
"The threat of malicious websites hosting exploits has reached a point where Google's engineers have decided to respond with a security analysis of the pages they index.
For websites that contain malware through no active fault of the webmaster, or sites that do not properly sanitize user contributed content, the ultimate Internet penalty could be imposed on them - a Google advisory that the site found in a search is unsafe. That could effectively destroy traffic to a site that has been hacked or designed poorly." Nick Carr calls Google's security aims a plan to police the Web.
Matt Cutts comments: " (Disclosure: I’m a software engineer at Google.)
Nick, I normally love your posts, but your headline (”Google preparing to police web”) isn’t very accurate, because we’ve been tackling malware for quite a while. Here’s some historical context...
Google’s response when we believed malware was present was to warn the user via an interstitial when they clicked on a search result that might infect their computer. See
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/info-about-malware-warnings-and-how-to-appeal-them/
for an example post about this process and how to appeal it if you have removed the malware or believe there was an error.
Users liked the malware protection a lot, so we added some annotation to listings for sites that could potentially infect a machine. See:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/02/google-flags-pages-that-install.html
for more info.
Of course, it’s important to help regular webmasters who might have been hacked and not even know that they were infecting their users. To that effect, we added sample urls with suspected malware to our webmaster console. See
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/got-malware-google-will-help-you-find-it/
for more details."
As you know we were hacked so I am posed a question to Matt Cutts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My question to Matt Cutts is:
"Jan Said,
May 11, 2007 @ 8:02 pm
My question Matt is how does Google treat a website that was (note WAS) infected, clears the virus, but finds a problem. In my case there were pages and pages of porn content, and on these pages were scripts so people landing on these pages would be taken off to an actual porn site. So here is my site sitting with all this content (now deleted) and my keyword / key phrase listing has gone down the tubes because of this. HOW to I report something like this to Google and get back in the search ranks for what I should I was listed for and still should be listed for?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I will update you if he responds.
A Hack Attack Is Only Funny When It's Bill The Cat!
We were hacked. Bet the thought of it gives you shivers. It sure did me, and more!
As a web designer I use many tools to monitor my site and stats. Mid week I signed up for Google Webmaster Tools and was horrified to see a list of keywords that were pornographic AND not on my site. The first question, of course, was where on earth were these coming from.
The next step was to go through every page on the server and check for files / folders that appear suspicious. My main site was fine. I just started to go through folders for my newsletters when my Live Help (Crafty Syntax Live Help http://www.craftysyntax.com/) popped up with a visitor on my site. As usual I checked to see the keywords they used to find me and what page they were searching for and was horrified to see pornographic keywords and a url on my site that I did not know existed.
OMG!
I immediately searched the particular folder and there were pages and pages of pornographic text files that had been uploaded to my site. I reported it to my hosting company and the log file they had did give me important information. I downloaded one of the pages to view the code and saw that there was a script underneath. On further research (google search) I discovered that these pages were simply jumping off points, due to the script, to actual pornographic sites. But there was my url listed with these awful pornographic words - in Google.
What I Did Once Found
I removed the files and I even removed the legitimate folder but because I had removed the pages the script was gone so these people (and I use that term loosely when I saw what they were searching for) were still searching for this "stuff" and now landing on my main site. I was totally shocked to see visitor after visitor, seconds apart, looking for words that I would certainly not type here. So something else had to be done.
I created a 400, 403, 404 page stating "PLEASE NOTE: WE HAVE HAD A PROBLEM
RECENTLY OF FILES BEING UPLOADED TO OUR WEBSITE THAT WERE NOT CREATED BY THIS COMPANY AND CONTAIN OFFENSIVE MATERIAL. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THESE FILES, THEY NO LONGER EXIST." But the searchers kept coming, less than 10 seconds apart. It was frightening, and pretty sickening considering what they were looking for.
Next I checked to make sure there wasn't something else on the server. This took hours and hours with so many newsletter folders and 4 years of blog folders.
Inside one of the blog folders was another folder that was very innocently named, but I could not recall naming it myself, and all the blog archives are by date. When I opened this folder there were pages and pages of this pornography. Again I wiped out the files and folders.
Now I was getting search after search landing on my site looking for these porn pages as all these scripts had been broken. Yes it was upsetting to see this, but even more than that was the fact that the keywords that they were using were being raked-up, pornographic, and had nothing to do with my business. I was, and am, afraid that Google will penalize me, or remove my site from the index.
Seeking Extra Resources
My next step was to go to my favorite forum, Web Pro World, and see if anyone had any suggestions on how to stop this. John, a moderator, offered a .htaccess file loaded with words. Once this file was in place it would block anyone from reaching the site (access denied). So we went through all the keywords we had (don't do this on a full stomach folks) and added to the list and put it up. Suddenly there was silence. No every few seconds a visitor entering looking for porn alert. After three days peace at last.
How Did This Happen?
Since the files were uploaded over a month ago we can't be 100% sure, but around that time we downloaded an innocent script that very nicely put a virus on our computer, taking over the internet for a couple of hours. We did find a security program that found the virus and killed it. It looks like in that two hour period all this happened.
What Can You Do To Check Your Site?
A good place to start is Google Webmaster Tools because (increasingly) Google is using the Google Webmaster Tools to inform webmasters of problems with their sites. If you see strange page names being accessed and keywords that do not relate to your site you very well may have a problem.
Site Banned?
My site has not been banned and I am hoping I caught it quickly enough for this not to happen. My site listing in searches (keywords and key phrases) has dropped to the point that currently I can't find it for my site. Yes I have work to do!
Gratitude!
Many thanks to Live Help Crafty Syntax for their wonderful program. Special thanks to Web Pro World, especially John who supplied me with the code for my htaccess file. Important thanks to my clients for their understanding over the days it took to clean up this mess. Loving thanks to my partner and husband for his support and technical help.
Second Life - The Quest To Find Land
As I have reported here before I am a Second Lifer looking for the benefits of business, both my own and my clients, to Second Life.
Bringing your company into Second Life is a new way to showcase your business and your products, from web design, art, clothing, to training in your particular industry and more.
There are a number of major companies in Second Life, such as, Dell, Nissan, Adidas, IBM, Reuters, Sony BMG, etc. There are also more not so well known company names that I am sure you will hear about soon.
I realized, once I got past the past of creating my 'image' and picking up some freebies here and there, that in order to further my goal I had to find some land to build on.
The Quest!
Finding land certainly has not been easy. How does one figure out where you should buy or not? Should you be in "PG" land, should you be in "Mature land", and even then, trying to find at least a reasonable price is not easy.
Ok so, this is what I have done.
I started out as they tell you to do:
Click on "Search" and "Land Sales" and you get listings of land sales and auctions.
Well land sales (hmmmm) they are in many cases land 'rentals' or places to advertise. Not so many land sales
So I went to the map, clicked off "Land For Sale" and under "View" in the menu I click off "Property Lines". On the map when you see a $ sign that means the land is for sale. So the search on the map begins.
I click on a $ sign and click teleport and end up on a piece of land. I can see the outlines of property lines and click to see the details (size, price, etc.).
Here's an image I took of one parcel of land I was thinking about.
I figure my next goal is creating a virtual map from my visits that will explain these areas so I have some idea whether I want to purchase land in any particular area.
Stay tuned for more on my quest to buy land!
Want to join? Click here and do look me up when you get there!
Project Management - Organizing Your Website Part Two (Storyboard)
In one of my employment incarnations I worked for the film industry. Part of my educational training, which is critical for film production (in fact production of any kind), was storyboarding. The story board covers every last detail of the production to ensure nothing is missed, timing is correct, there is continuity, etc.
My training in I.T. Publishing/Web Design/Programming also had one very critical part of the course which was Project Management. Under that umbrella was also storyboarding.
What is Website Storyboarding?
Basically it is breaking the whole into small manageable pieces. It is not just creating pages, the linking structure, though that is part of it, but also the flow of where you what your visitor to enter, the paths you want them to follow (guide your visitor) to reach an end result.
This storyboard will end up telling your story to your visitor both visually and structurally.
The first web site I ever created was done totally on paper. Each page of paper represented one page of the site, including headings, content, links and graphic ideas. I had many-many pages of paper. Once I had this completed I took each page and entered it as html. After a bit of tweaking my first web site was created (many moons ago now!).
A website storyboard can be created with a layout, a series of boxes, using a word processing or graphic design program. Each 'box' will represent each page with headings, content, links, graphics, etc. Arrows should be drawn between boxes (pages) in order to show the specific paths you want your visitor to follow through the site. You should also consider the "IF" in the paths. For example, "IF" the visitor goes to the services page then you need to guide them to the contact page (for example). One thing I used in storyboarding in the film industry, that I still use now, is color coding. This is extra help in the direction (beside arrows) of the path you would like your visitor to follow.
Some Basics
- Envision a color theme, graphic(s) and general layout to be used on each page
- Name each page so it reflects what you will be presenting to your visitor
- Break up your content into main headings, subheadings, etc.
- Consider, and include, links to other pages or outside areas (for example a shopping cart)
** If you are not designing your own web site, storyboarding is still very helpful in organizing your thoughts, vision and content. Then once you start working with a web designer there will be less room for errors and confusion.
Stay tuned for Part 3.
Project Management - Organizing Your Website Part One
When you start to think of creating a website, or redesigning a current website, it can be overwhelming whether you are doing it yourself or having a web designer do it for you. Breaking the big picture down into small parts can make the whole process more manageable.
When I took my training in I.T. Publishing/Web Design/Programming one very critical part of the course was Project Management. Project Management is common place in large companies as many will have various staff dealing with different aspects of the project. However, Project Management is also used in smaller companies.
Managing the project of a website is not only having the beginning idea and final product ending, but many steps in between to not only help you organize what is needed to be done, determine a time frame, but also to bring the project in on budget.
For this series of articles will discuss your website being created by a web designer.
Project Management - Basic Beginning Steps
Your role in this project from on the onset will help the entire process. Determine the goal of your web site by asking yourself these questions:
- What do I want tell my visitors?
- What do I want to offer my visitors?
- Where do I want my visitors to go?
- and then look at it again and see if there are any areas where your visitor could say "What am I suppose to do now?" If you can see this so will they so go back to #1 and start again.
Organize your information! The more organized you are, in your mind and with your documents, the easier the process will be.
A website layout usually begins with a home page / index page and builds from there...
- Determine how many pages you want and what information will be included on these pages.
- Decide what content, images, audio, video etc., will be used or are desired.
- Decide what look and feel you want for your website. Surf the Web. See what's out there, what attracts you.
- Determine a realistically allocate a budget. If you want a 30 page web site but want to pay only a few hundred dollars then you must streamline your expectations at this stage. The project can be split into sections or some 'toys and whistles' put on a wait list to accommodate a limited budget, but this has to be part of the project discussion right up front. Once the budget is determined add another 10% for unexpected changes or additions.
Marketing - "All Is Fair In Love And War"
In my business I talk to many clients about different aspects of marketing. They also ask me about all sorts of different marketing strategies they have read about, heard about, or been advised to do, in one form or another.
We all know the saying "All is fair in love and war", well that seems to be true in marketing as well. It seems to me the more I hear the more I realize that 'many' marketers actually don't care too much about the client nor do they care about the client's customers. They are only trying to market their 'line'.
Examples:
- Font type (Ariel versus Verdana) can make or break a sale
- Price (9.99 versus 9.97) can make or break a sale
- Bold the first sentence of every paragraph or bold the first sentence of every other paragraph (which one can make or break a sale)
Also, I read an article today that states you can push potential customers to buy if you say "stock is limited" or if you say "only XX amount of items are left". Another tactic is saying that the sale price lasts only to "X" date. Do these work, possibly, is it truth, chances are most are not - a very select few are.
I am not saying that marketers are dishonest, per se. There are some marketers out there that I respect. However I do think that many marketers should keep up with what is going on out in the 'virtual world' and upgrade their recommendations at the very least.
My roll is to advise clients of the most up to date information I have researched and have used. I advise clients that they may make a sale today, based on some particular marketing theories, but to be very careful because if they want a loyal customer / client base they must be credible and trustworthy so they keep coming back.
Visitors Short Attention Span
Did you know that your visitor / customer may be gone before they even read the first heading of your web site?
I was reading an article recently that said that you have about 10 seconds to catch a visitors attention before they leave your web site. That is less than what I read previously and more than some articles state. So what can you do in a such a short period of time to keep folks on your site and hopefully purchasing.
Present a quality web site. If you want people to buy your 'quality product' then make sure your web site looks 'quality' as well.
Ensure the load time of your web site is quick. Flash may look 'cool' but load time can be a problem. Keep images to a minimum and ensure they are optimized so loading time is less.
Flashing arrows, audio that comes on when visitors land on the page, etc., distract visitors and may even drive them away from the site. Pop-ups are hazardous to your visitors experience!
Easy navigation is critical for visitors / customers. If they can't find what they are looking for, quickly, they will move on. Have top navigation, condensed bottom navigation, and important links to inner pages from your home page.
If you really want long copy on your web page have the most important copy 'above the fold'. If your heading takes up all the space in your screen trust me your visitor won't even take the time to read anything more.
Think of what you would like to find in your own visiting / shopping experience and give it to your visitor / customer!
The Explosion of Landing / Squeeze Pages
Have you noticed lately that when you do a search that you come upon a "landing / squeeze page" where you have to do something before you can even see what you were searching for?
It's all about Marketing.
(Not sure of the definitions for 'landing page' 'squeeze page' click here:
http://www.jbcr-virtualsolutions.com/tips-and-articles.html#Internet
How to make it work.
Your visitor most likely came through a search, or an ad, so be sure you give some information right away as to why they arrived at your page and, yes, this is where they should be. In the case of a landing page it is usually a product sales pitch, where a squeeze page is a name / email capture for a newsletter, report, teleclass, etc.
1. Present a short compelling heading.
2. Keep content short - Use bullets.
3. Avoid linking to other areas of your site.
4. Keep your form short and required fields limited. If you want your visitors to fill out the form list the benefits of completing the form even if you mentioned it above.
5. Keep your content and form above the fold.
6. Don't take the email your visitor has given you and use if for other promotions. Remember they submitted for a certain product and not only will they unsubscribe if you use it for all promotions, they can also report you as spamming.
Attracting traffic is only one part of the equation, converting it is the other.
Do Testimonials Add Value?
Absolutely! Testimonials add value to your products / services. Why? Testimonials speak to your potential customer / client from the point of view of someone who is satisfied. This endorses your products/ services, adds credibility, and also adds an emotional appeal.
The three forms of testimonials at present are:
- Text Testimonials
- Audio Testimonials
- Visual Testimonials
Text testimonials
Use the full testimonial or quote a portion if the testimonial is too long. If at all possible add a picture as this adds more credibility and appeal.
Audio Testimonials
If you can get some audio testimonials, whether you ask people to call your answering machine, or if you are able to record them through audio sites, this extra effort gives your customer an extra boost in confidence.
Video Testimonials
Video testimonials are a definite benefit. Real people giving real accounts of using your products / services are an incredibly endorsement. If any type of testimonial is going to add value it's going this one. This takes time to add to your site, and memory for hosting, but it is worth it
Bottom Line on Testimonials
Never make up testimonials. It may look good on your web site but missed 'flaws' can throw up all sorts of red flags saying the testimonial(s) are fake. It is better to have none than obvious self-written testimonials.
Adding testimonials to your Web Site can begin generating the personal connection that is needed to establish the critical basis of honesty and validity that your clients desire in their online purchasing experience.
The Law of Attraction and Web Design?
We have been hearing a lot about the Law of Attraction lately with Oprah having a panel on her show discussing "The Secret". In fact the Law of Attraction has been around for a very long time. It certainly is becoming a more popular pursuit.
Does the Law of Attraction and Web Site Design in the same sentence sound strang to you? It shouldn't.
When you think of the Law of Attraction, "you get what you think about - your thoughts determine your destiny" then of course this should enter into your web site design goals. When you think of what type of web site you want designed, the color, layout, graphics, content, menu flow, etc. you naturally want to "attract" your perfect clients/customers to you.
How do you know when you have arrived at a web site were the owner has not used the Law of Attraction? Well I'm sure you've been to a web site where the colors hurt your eyes, the music is offensive, the graphics are over-powering, or have had a frustrating experience trying to find what you're looking for. Using the Law of Attraction when designing your web site will draw the prefect customers to you and present to your visitors what they are looking for.
Do you already have a web site? You can still use the Law of Attraction. Look at your website, do you see clutter, do you see "things" on the site that no longer serve you, are no longer relevant, then do something to change it.
If you create your web site with love for your visitor, rework your web site with love for your visitor, you will draw that client customer to you.
(LOA Definition: Wikipedia- The Law of Attraction is an idea that is widespread in New Age and New Thought philosophy. It posits to never dwell on the negative, as the metaphysical principle of life is embodied in a "law of attraction": "you get what you think about, your thoughts determine your destiny." )
Should You Create an Ebook or Paperback / Hardcover Book?
We all know what a paperback/hardcover book is, but for those of you who are still unsure what an Ebook is, they are an electronic equivalent to regular hardcover or paperback books. Ebooks are typically a downloadable product and password protected.
So how to decide which publishing direction you should take.
Ebook
An Ebook should be created and presented as professionally as a paperback/hardcover book. There are several reasons to do this, first and foremost is the book represents you and your words. An ebook should be presented in a similar format to a paperback/hardcover book as this is what most people are used to. Some costs/cost savings to consider:
- Editing / proofreading
- Book cover / art work
- Profitable, less actual costs to produce
- Publication promotions are your decision
- Impulse buyers receive instant gratification
- Easier to update
- Easier for customers to adjust font size
- Can be printed by the customer
With the ability to publish an ebook, gone are the days when novice authors had to struggle to find firms to publish their books. As well, more and more avid literary fans are opting to purchase ebooks instead of paperbacks.
Security is an issue with ebooks. DRM (Digital Rights Management) can protect a pdf, though customers tend to dislike this feature because of the restrictions as a purchaser. In my experience, and research, publishers should be more concerned with content 'scraping' then simply sharing. I will speak more about security next post.
Paperback / Hardcover Book
With a paperback/hardcover book you will invest a lot of of your time and money. You can look for a publisher for your book or self publish. Self-publishing a book still takes time and effort. Some costs/cost savings to consider:
- Hunting down the right agent or publishing company
- Contract / royalties / advances
- Editing (pre-editing the book before you submit it) but do hire an editor proofreading
- Book cover / art work
- ISBN numbers cost (The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a 10-digit number which uniquely identifies books and book-like products.)
- To save money do consider POD (Print on demand publishing) that allows a book publisher to print as few as one book. That means that authors and publishers no longer have to order hundreds or thousands of books before they know if a book will even sell
There will always be something about the feel of a book that people like and treasure.
Conclusion
Consensus is that ebooks and paper versions have two distinct audiences. There are many paper version books that are not available as ebooks and visa-versa. So based on that statement your decision may be determined as much by the type of book you want to publish as your time, money and possibly prestige.
*Click here for information our ebook product details.
Getting To Know You
You want potential customers/clients to get to know you. Why? Because getting to know you means trusting you. By doing specific things so people 'Get To Know You', trust you, can increase traffic AND improve sales.
What can you do so people will know you - learn to trust you?
Create:
- an audio
- a video
- a teleclass
- a blog
These are effective mediums but only a start.
You need to follow-up with your contacts and invite then to sign-up for a report, newsletter, articles, e-class, etc.
But don't think that it ends there - Follow-up!
Take it a step further and go viral. Record a podcast, do a survey, start a forum for people to get together to exchange information, ideas and opinions.
The more people get to know you, trust you, are drawn towards you, the more they are willing to take the next step to purchasing your product or services.
Also read about web site design trust by clicking here.
Price Your Product - Right!
Did you know that how you price your product can sell your product?
Did know that a high percentage of the products being sold are too cheap?
Did you know that adding too much value added - too many bonuses can be detrimental?
Why...
- It makes your product look like it needs all these ‘bonuses’ to be worth the price of your product.
- It makes customers ask why so many bonuses - can your product not stand on it's own merit
Premium Products Can And Do Sell At Premium Prices!
When you have a premium product don't be afraid to sell it for what it is worth. A premium product at a higher price says ‘quality’. Don't for a moment believe you have to have the same, or lower price as who you see as your competition to make any sales. You just need to have a great sales tool (your website and graphics of the product, for example), and, yes, of course, a true quality product if you really ever want anyone to buy from you again. It’s called Truth and Trust.
Click here to learn much more from my ebook.
Navigating Second Life - Updating As I Go
As a new Second Life member I have been trying to "walk" my way around to see what I can offer my clients as far as opening a store, advertising, etc. From what I have seen so far this Virtual World could be the next local mall, fabulous resort, top of the line conference center - and even better. Not only can you can rent space to sell merchandise and much more, but as a member you could buy your own little piece of land to do with as you please. You do need to think of whether your will be found on your little piece of land. I have noticed trying to find a location is not as easy as it sounds. The popular locations are listed, that's about it, unless you know what to search for. So trying to find out where the heck I am (I have been hijacked a couple of times too and no idea how) has been interesting
I really do see the benefit as a business owner and for my clients. I know that American Apparel, among other businesses are in there - and if you see the shop you will be amazed - however...
I will continue in SL (not prepared to pay for the book as well as the membership - yet).
What a strange trip this is!
Taking A Stab At Second Life
Are you involved in Social Networking? There are lots of places, but Second Life is new to me.
I've been reading a great deal about Second Life so I decided to give it a try myself. It took me a fair amount of time to create my avatar to a point that I thought it might look a little like me. I then started walking around the virtual 3D world. You use the arrow keys to move, and as in real life you can walk off a cliff :)
Second Life gives you a chance to meet people, text chat (they say voice is coming). There are stores, beaches, golf courses, bars, ski areas, high-rise office buildings, etc., all created by users.
The talk is that Second Life could become a place to sell products, services, and conduct classes - a whole new and different social network. I found a few places, in a short period of time, where there were virtual malls, with stores, and stores for rent. Amazing!
One thing I can see growing in this community is advertising dollars. With a community of almost 3 million that equals a lot of people viewing your ad. In my travels I did see many ads.
Read more here: http://snipurl.com/18jge
If you join drop me a note so we can connect.
Want to join? Click here and do look me up when you get there!
Working Your Site Does Help!
As a business owner I spend the majority of my time creating and working sites for clients. That is what any of us do in business. The past few months I became very aware that not only did my website look stale, but I was not doing what I advise my clients to do (fresh content, update blogs, submit articles, etc.) So I decided to spend more time on my site. The page rank and alexa change may not mean a great deal to most as there is not a huge difference, but this is working the site at the most a half hour a day during this time period. Here are the results.
December 22, 2006
Page Rank - 5
Alexa - 229,717
January 25, 2007
Page Rank - 6
Alexa - 183,275
Yes working your site does make a difference and will make a difference.
Are You Missing Out? Check Your Thank You Page!
Most people don't realize that the "Thank You" page that folks land on after subscribing to a newsletter, free report, or after a purchase is one of the most responsive pages on your web site. You may ask why, let me explain.
If a potential customer/client has decided to register for a newsletter, free report, or product, you know that they are already interested in you, your business, your service/product. So when they sign-up, or purchase a product, you have the prime opportunity to offer more as 'trust' has already been established.
The 'thank you' page provides a prime opportunity for promoting some of your other products and/or services. You can use this space to increase your online sales and/or build your list. For example, why not use the following message on your thank you page after someone has subscribed to your newsletter.
"Thank you for subscribing to my newsletter. Remember to check your inbox for your first issue.
In the meantime, I would like to introduce you to a product that I recently developed (or say that I highly recommend if it is an affiliate product)...."
This is an easy way to send traffic to your product and/or an affiliate link so you can earn some additional revenue from what is often unused space.
You can use this same technique for your purchase thank you pages. Thank the customer for their order and recommend they check out a related product that is complimentary to the product they just purchased. You could also offer an upsell to a higher-end version of the same product. Don't take this space for granted. Purchase thank you pages are some of the most highly responsive space on your site.
Is Your Website Not Working? Maybe Your Visitors Don't Trust You!
The first, and most important "trust factor", is a unique (not cookie cutter) professional looking web site design with easy navigation. Next is relevant content. You just need to keep in mind that as in your every day life, the first impression is the most important.
What can you do to create trust? Here are a few suggestions.
1. Creating Trust On Your Website
Trust is very important whether you are selling products or services. You need to keep in mind that most of us only deal with people 'virtually' so the only way people can, and will trust, is by what we present on our website.
2. Contact Information
Make sure you have proper contact information at the bottom of each page. If you have a home office and do not want this listed on the internet at least list a contact email and phone number. If you only have a home phone number then it is well worth it to invest in a cell phone.
You should also have have a "contact us" page. If you want to avoid spam from your email address a very well designed contact form works well.
3. Biography
Credentials are very important, but given some personal 'feel' about yourself also helps to build trust. That does not mean you have to tell your favorite color, but a little 'tidbit' so you become 'real' to you viewer. A photo is also important - even if you are not very fond of having your picture taken it is very important that people can see who they are dealing with. A short audio will help as well. It really does make a difference if people can hear your voice.
4. Privacy Policy
If you have any forms, for newsletters, reports, products, etc., then it is very important you have a clear policy of what you will and will not do with personal information that you collect. You should also have a Return Policy and Shipping Policy if you are offering products.
5. Testimonials
Testimonials from satisfied clients/customers on your website are a big benefit. This not only helps your visitors trust your products and/or services, but they can see that others have trust in you.
One big No No - do not make up testimonials. You may think that people do not notice repeats or "canned" testimonials, but they do and all trust will be lost right there.
Summary
When you are thinking of your web design, your content, remember that if your visitors don't trust you, they are less likely to stay on your site to see what you have to offer which, or course means see loss of online conversions.
Writing Content For Your Web Site
Writing compelling content to get the results you want from your visitors is your number one goal - right? Most people find it very difficult to write content for their web site. Some feel it's because writing is not their forte. Let me give you a few pointers.
Ask yourself some of these questions when you look at your content.
- Do you envision buying the products or using the services reading your words?
- Do you envision the product, or service, helping you?
- Do you feel trust?
- Does the content give you what you would have come to the web site for?
On any given page, especially the index page, you have about 10-30 seconds to tell the reader that they have arrived at the right web site, for the right reasons and you have the right answer.
Web Content Tips:
- Put the most important content at the top of the page.
- Use headings, but not ones that are so huge it puts people off, that tell people if they should read further.
- Write short paragraphs and bold points that are critical to your reader.
- Use bulleted points
- Link to other relevant pages of your site.
- Use images to break up text IF it makes sense to use them.
Many visitors say they can't see "the tree because of the forest" (so to speak) in web content. There are too many words and they can't find the answers they are looking for quick enough. Remember, most visitors just scan content. A certain percentage of visitors will not be interested in your content, a certain percentage will read some of your content and some visitors may even read it all (usually your competition).
Write and structure your content so visitors will peruse your web site, bring visitors back and attract new searchers.
Tips To Create A Strong Internet Presence - Part One
When you start thinking of building a web site the main goal should be at least two-fold:
1. The visual appearance is attractive, dynamic and compelling
2. The web site will bring in traffic, customers and clients
Almost everything you read on an internet presence uses the phrase "build it and they will come" because most think "building it" (the web site) is all you need to do. Nice thought, not reality.
YES - It is a must that your web site is unique. You don't want to look the same as all the others out there. This is not just a visual issue, this is also a branding issue. If your customer/client sees your site 'out there' just with a different name, and maybe a couple of different images, do you think they will remember you?
YES - It is a Must that your web site is optimized. Not only do you want the search engine (bots) to find you but you want your potential clients/customers to find you. If the search engine bots can't, neither can your clients!
YES - You have to do more work after your web site is built and optimized. The traffic you see, once you have done your web site and optimization, will only come back if you give them a reason to. This means creating and updating a blog, adding articles, creating products, and much more.
Stay tuned for more tips!
Online Business Planning for 2007 - A Start!
There are many articles out there the will tell you what "New Year's Resolutions" are needed to plan for a new business year as an entrepreneur. From a business plan, budgeting, marketing strategies, product development, to everything in-between and beyond. Here is my advice.
First of all, take time to plan. Yes it is hard when you are running a business but it is very necessary. Here are some tips.
Look back - Overview
- Look back at what worked and what did not work last year. Learn from omissions or mistakes and what changes you can make so you don't repeat them.
Look back at - First Priorities
- Is your website visually appealing, accessible, optimized, alt tags in images, content updated on a weekly basis? If you said YES because you have been making minor updates off and on throughout the year, then YES is right answer. If you haven't been doing this then is is time to take critical look at your entire website. This is your storefront. This is one the most important part of your business. This is how your clients/customers and potential clients/customers find you and see you. No short cuts here! Take the time and look at every page to see what you can do better.
- Is your testimonial page up-to-date? Make sure you add those new testimonials you have been meaning to add or ask your 2006 clients who have not given you one for a testimonial. Most people are happy to.
- Is you article page stale dated? When was the last time you added new articles? Take the time to plan adding at least one article per month to your website and submit it to article directories.
- Is your blog outdated? If you can't even remember your login and password you really need to work on this. If you don't have a blog - don't wait - DO IT NOW!!
- Is your newsletter sign-up visible - and - have you been doing a newsletter regularly? If you didn't answer YES to either make this change right away.
I also think there is one very important point that should be considered in all your business plans for the new year - for any year. As the saying goes "do what you love and the money will follow". This may sound tripe but it is the truth. If you do what you love your work is a labor of love and it will flourish and grow.
Stay tuned for Part Two!
Alexa Ranking - WOW!!
I was doing some work tonight on my blog and submitting an article. I clicked back to my articles page to pick up a link and you can imagine my surprise when I saw my Alexa ranking was at only 468 (see that number next to the info button). Look at this.
I even refreshed a couple of times and it stayed the same, but I knew it had to be a fluke so took a screen shot :)
This is, without a doubt, the kind of traffic we work so hard on so all our sites will achieve it.
Automated Article Submissions
Many article software submission products, even the ones that say they don't require automated clicks, require that you click 'next', 'next', etc., and, at the very least, confirm the account with the article directory via email confirmation. This is far from automated don't you think?
Article directory sites, where you need to confirm via email confirmation, you have to go through at least the sign-up process. The best article directory sites require sing-up and email confirmation, that's just the way it works. It is a one-time process so article submission software may work after the sign-up and email confirmation - not sure, I haven't tried it YET. I will report back.
Do be Careful - article submission software that automates everything to article directory sites that don't require an email confirmation, you are pretty much assured of being lost in a sea of spam on directories that people you want to reach do not want to visit and never will.
No script is truly automated - at least at this point from what I can determine.
Remember the line - "If Is Sounds Too Good To Be True It Probably Is"? 'Tis True - Don't Forget It!
Is Your Site Missing In A Google Search?
Google Supplemental Index?
Did you know that Google uses two indexes for its search results. One is what is called/considered the normal index and the second is called supplemental results index.
What Is It?
Google says:
"A supplemental result is just like a regular web result, except that it's pulled from our supplemental index. We're able to place fewer restraints on sites that we crawl for this supplemental index than we do on sites that are crawled for our main index. For example, the number of parameters in a URL might exclude a site from being crawled for inclusion in our main index; however, it could still be crawled and added to our supplemental index."
Why Is My Site Here?
Here are some reasons:
- your pages are dynamically generated
- you don't have unique content on your webpages
- you use doorway pages
- your title and description tags are the same on every page
- orphaned pages
If your web pages are listed in the supplemental results then they won't be returned very often for regular search queries. Pages that appear on the main index will almost always show up first in a search. Supplemental results are crawled less. Supplemental search results will only show up if there are very few or no results at all in the main index.
What can I do?
A number of things but a couple that will really help is unique, relevant quality content and have specific meta tags for each individual page. It is much easier to avoid being placed in the supplemental index than it is to be taken out. So do it right the first time!
Special Note: Just read this one. Google indexes WordPress blogs causing most posts to go into the supplemental index.
I invite you to sign-up for my newsletter that will cover this in more depth.
Internet Marketing - Web Pages
Squeeze Page Definition: A Squeeze Page is a single web page that has one particular purpose, capturing names/emails for your list. So, in fact a Squeeze Page will give away 'freebies' in order to capture names. The majority of Squeeze page forms will be set-up with an auto-responder so, basally, once you have the page up it takes care of itself. This is also sometimes referred to as a Landing Page.
Sales Page Definition: A Sales Page is a single web page that has one particular purpose, selling a product. A Sales Page may also be called a Landing Page. Many sales pages have multiple up sells. When creating a sales page copy (remember the "W's") is as important as the product, as is the appearance of the sales page, and your credibility!
Many people use the same term for these two pages when in fact, by definition they are different, though they don't have to be. Perhaps we should think of a new name for a combination page - how about "SQSal Page"?
Landing Page Definition: A web page that a visitor reaches after clicking an advertisement. If you don’t have an effective landing page for each and every ad campaign you undertake you're wasting money.
So shall we do the sales action in a proper process? Ok, the Landing Page is the beginning of the sales process. The Landing Page is the first action the client/customer will take. The Sales Page, IF used after the landing page (for example if they click off and there is a page below), will actively try to persuade your visitor to purchase at this stage, or sign-up for a ‘freebie’ to build your list.
Internet Marketing, which all these cove,r are the basis of ways to stimulate traffic and increase sales.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 101 Part 2 - Free Report
If you missed part one of this series, you can read it here: http://www.jbcr-virtualsolutions.com/tips-and-articles.html#Style.
As promised, for this segment we'll start with by discussing"Styles" used in Word Processing programs such as Microsoft Word and how you can relate them to "Cascading Style Sheets" for the Wide World Web. As well, we'll revisit the primary reason why you should care. CSS Style sheets will save you money!
Word processing and page layout tools all use styles.
You may not notice, but the program is organizing your work as you go along using sets of formatting rules, or "styles". Many people don't use anything more than the "default style template" when creating documents in Microsoft Word (for example). In other words, they just go in and start typing. If they want something to appear as a large heading. They will do one of two things:
- Select the text with their cursor and select a "style" from the list which appears to the left of the text options, or they will.
- Select the text with their cursor and change the font size, color and/or font face.
Each time one adds a different text style, the document size increases as the program has more things to remember about how to display the document when it is opened or printed.
Size and document structure complexity is less important an issue with a text document than it is for web pages, but it can cause problems when printing, sending to a outside printer or even having documents crashing or freezing up.
So how does this apply to the subject of CSS Style Sheets for the web?
We cannot emphasis this enough...CSS Style Sheets will save you money AND make you more money than non-css sites!
The best performing web sites on the Internet all use Style Sheets for this and a number of other reasons.
MONEY SAVING REASON ONE REVISITED:
Simplifies making site wide visual changes.
A well constructed website using stylesheets can change many aspects of a site's appearance without touching a single web page. This may not seem a big deal if you have only a few pages, but if you have twenty, or a thousand pages, appearance changes can prove very costly and time consuming. With a style sheet, web developers such as JBCR, could change the look of a 100 page website faster than we could change 3 pages that do not use a stylesheet.
One of the huge mistakes many people make is pay a web designer a great deal of money for time and effort to build them a site, with proper stylesheet's... and then cripple their new site's effectiveness by abandoning the web designer's "master plan".
After their site is competed, they take over the updating and apply font sizes and colors etc in the web pages instead of in the stylesheet. A good portion of the money they spent on their design just went out the window. Their site's visual appearance is no longer manageable from a master sheet. Visual appearance changes now adjusted on a page by page basis.
I want to make one thing very clear, I mean no disrespect to folks looking after their own sites who have no web development training. They would not have any way of knowing they were in slowing their own progress to profits down. It's "under the hood". You can't see the damage. The site itself may not look any different. The ROI of the site can be affected and the costs of looking after the site are the issues here.
You can receive the rest of this free report by signing up for our Virtualoso Newsletter (free also). If you are already a subscriber, you will automatically receive this report when we have completed it. There is no need for you to subscribe again!
Should You Continue To Submit Your Website To Search Engines?
Search engines rely heavily on spiders/crawlers/bots to find new websites and updated websites. Once your web site is listed in a search engine, it is listed, no need to submit again. In fact submitting over and over may actually hurt you. The 'bots' will come back if you update your site often.
If you have a blog that will help bring the 'bots' to your site as well as they see the blog as updated content.
Another way 'bots' find you is by following links on other sites that lead to your site, and following links within your site to find new pages.
It is important to have of links on your site and links on other web sites that point to you. It's best to have relevant links. For example, if you focus on graphics, then you'll want other like minded sites linked to you instead of say fitness sites.
One way to get links pointing to your web site is to write articles and submit them to article banks. Your articles need to contain a resource section, a blurb about you and your site that contains a link to your web site. Be sure to post these articles on your site as well. You should add at least one article a month, more if you have the time. Having good fresh content on your web site makes it more important to search engines, so you will rank higher.
Another good way to have links pointing to your site is to write press releases about your site/company and have links to your web site in the press release. Submit each press release to relevant web sites.
Now, one place you do want to manually submit your site to is directories. These are sites that list websites by categories. These categories can be anything from coaching to food. Listing with them is a good idea since many people look for websites on directories. You would need to manually list your web site because they don't send 'bots' out to find your site. Manually listing is the only way to list with these site as most do not accept software submissions. To find directories go to: http://www.pheedster.com/directories.php It is important to note that some directories are free and others charge.
No matter how you slice it, ranking well takes work. You have to create good content, get links on your site and have other sites link to you. You put the work in and you will bring in more visitors to your site. You know what the equals :)
Creating Affiliate Websites AND Making Money
I have created a number sites that are solely affiliate sites, meaning that I am selling other people's products to make a commission. This is not new to anyone, I am sure, but please read on.
What I do want to cover here is deciding to create a straight affiliate site and how to decide on what you need to know. and do, for it to work.
First of all, do not create an affiliate website on something that you know nothing about. Yes you can buy a domain name, set up hosting, grab a banner, text link but that is not enough. Sure through the site up and plan and the money rolling in - but it does not work that way.
There is no easy way to make money with affiliate programs. It does take a lot of work and skill. You need to work an affiliate site as much, if not more, than your own website. Through trial and error, and with very hard work, you can make money and even possibly make really good money.
SEO and Coding
In my experience an effective SEO campaign can generate more traffic than pay-per-click or a banner-ad programs. Besides the general optimization methods, one of the best methods of optimizing a website is maintaining a good content to code ratio. Unfortunately code is the most neglected aspect of search engine optimization campaigns.
I always explain to my clients how important it is to have clean code in relation to SEO campaigns as well as search engine bots finding content easily and quickly.
YES - What You Don't See Can Hurt You!
This is where the code (what is underneath the website pages) and the discussion of the ratio of code higher than the content itself can, in fact hurt you (see above).
To help with coding/content ratio I always recommend that when I design a website that CSS is used to eliminate excess coding. The use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a great way to reduce you "code bloat". Linking to scripts outside of the website is a good idea. Besides the concern for bots, the least amount of coding 'under the hood' will allow the page(s) to load faster.
The new term they are using these days is called "Content to Code Ratio". Previously I knew it as "Code Bloat or Bloating". It means the same thing. Make sure your code underneath is minimal compared to your content.
Adding more content is always a benefit. Remember, “Content is King” is applicable even in your source code.
Read more at my fav. forum Web Pro World: http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=65403
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 101 - Free Report
Yes; you need to know about CSS, even if you plan on having a pro design your website.
Why? First good reason:
It costs you much less to have changes at your website done if you use CSS instead of font tags.
What is a Stylesheet and what do they do?
So; let's start at the beginning...Web pages once contained all the information required to:
- Display the information, product or service you wished to share with and or sell to the WWW.
- Display the above information in manner visually appealing and reflecting you/your businesses personality, message, style, brand etc.
As the WWW became more sophisticated, so did the need for web sites to reflect this by becoming more visually appealing.
So why is that a problem?
Coders got bigger paychecks but were becoming weary from the amount of time it took adding all this personality and "flair" to web pages and more importantly, clients balked at the way costs of creation per page, subsequent changes to pages, expanded.
Even with the availability of newer visual development enviroments, it required a lot of extra work adding extra coding tags around each little area that needed to bold, italic, or both. Each requires a separate tag. You take a quick look at even a small section of this page an might get glimmer of how many separate "coding tags" one might need to code. Think of a "tag" as enclosure with a complete set of instructions to the web browser about how you want this piece of text to look.
Solution - Separate style from substance.
Well, we finally got smart! EUREKA (All of us together at once of course ;-) What if we created a master document that told the web browser what to do with any tags that appear on any page of this website. WOW ...A single document describing what to use for each style you might want to use. This gives us the ability to change a text colour for a particular heading (for example), site wide by changing one page, the master instruction sheet, the Cascading Stylesheet. We are released from the burden of going through and every page to change the font colors or using hit and miss "search and replace" features.
To make a long story short, We (developers) now use the web pages for the "content" and create a separate page to describe how the content for the entire website should look.
We plan to cover this topic in future articles and extend the scope using real world examples to explain the relevance of CSS to you and your success on the Wide World Web.
In our next segment, we will talk a little about the relationship and differences between "Styles" used in Word Processing programs such as Microsoft Word and "Cascading Style Sheets" for the Wide World Web.
Promoting Your Site Through Your Blog
Promoting your business through articles, press releases and other online, and off line means is very important. From what I have been reading lately many of us are missing the 'boat' of what we can do with our blog in this regard.
When you post in your blog you will find an audience. Depending on your subject matter it can be large or small. If you post your news and updates to your blogs you may find you are picked up by many bloggers out there. These bloggers, if interested may pass your blog link along to others they feel will be interested as well. So what happens then? You may find that your blog, and your site, is getting more attention.
Your Announcements
If you work your blog correctly you can get your audience to do a story about your business, your press release, your new product, your new affiliate program.
Traffic
Blogs are generally great for increasing traffic because you will rank higher in search engines because of new content. But when you create blogs with announcements for your biz, be it a press release, new product, or affiliate program, you will see way more traffic then you exer expected.
Joint Ventures - Building A Business
Online businesses often join together on what is known as a "Joint Venture". As a website designer and e-commerce professional, I work with many clients on "Joint Ventures".
What is a Joint Venture you may ask...
Definition: A "joint venture" is an agreement joining together two or more parties for the purpose of executing a particular business undertaking. All involved agree to the intent of their partnership, to share in the profits and, as "joint venture partners" (if agreed) share in any losses of the "venture".
As we know, the Internet a vast market place. This virtual Market Place is full of talented and professionally trained people. A joint venture is not only a great way to sell your products, build your list, but it is also an incredibly important process for potential clients to find you who may never have arrived at your 'virtual door-step' had it not been for the Joint Venture.
For you to become a winner in business on the Internet this often hinges on how successful you are at creating strategic alliances (Joint Ventures) with others who offer services or products that compliment your own offerings. It's all about getting connected with those who are as established as you, or highly established names in the biz and how your association with them will provide you with the exposure you need to gain a foundation for your success.
There are so many points to cover in Joint Ventures, which I will go into detail soon in other articles. For now I feel the one below is critical and all who may consider Joint Ventures (or turn them down) should know this right off the bat (if you don't already).
#1 Sales or no sales (though of course sales are better). Remember you are getting access to customers ( other people's lists). The people on these lists may never had the chance to hear of you if you were not involved in this Joint Venture. For example, if your information is sent out to 100,000 people, because you have 5-10-20 people involved in this Joint Venture, and only 10% come to look at your products and site, you have 10,000 people who now know who you are that may never have found you had it not been for this Joint Venture.
We are all entrepreneurs - who would turn down 10,000 new views!
Page Rank Predictor - We Are Going To Be A 10!!
I did a search for page rank predictors to see what my site might be next go 'round as the last time I checked the predictor said the site would soon be a '6' and it is still a 5. So imagine my amazement (can you say laugh out loud and in tears) when I typed in my url and it said that I was going from a page rank of 5 to a 10 - No Kidding - here is the screen shot LOL).
Hey if this site ends up a 10 I can tell you I will personally call Bill Gates to say "hey - I can help your company :)"
This is just the best example of don't believe everything that you see and read. It's like the ads you see that they 'guarantee' to get you to #1 in the search engines in 24 hours.
On the other hand, in all seriousness, when you do your homework (SEO) you can come up in the search engine rankings (page rank is not as important). For example, one key phrase I have been working on has the site on page one in Google in 7th and 8th position out of 188,000,000 sites, as of May 26, 2006, (I put the date in as things can change). Here is the screen shot.
Created A Blog - Now How To Create More Traffic
A blog naturally attracts search engine traffic. Yes this is true.
A blog has a good navigation structure, links back to each page (not to mention links from other blogs) and fresh content as a blog is normally updated more than a website. The more you post the more food for the search engine spider.
So you have all of this, how do you create more traffic?
1. Write posts of interest to your customer/client. Most important, the Headline - that is what will grab them right away.
2. Use Keywords! Make sure your headings and content contain keywords/phrases that you want to be found for.
3. Build links to your blog. Offer to exchange links with similar blogs and websites.
4. Start an article in your blog and send the traffic to your website to read the rest of the article. (A bit off topic but one of the best methods for promoting your website is to write articles and submit them to article directories.)
5. Update/update/update.
Submit your blog to search engine blog directories, like blogger, blogwise, blogarama, etc. One that is coming to the forefront these days is Technorati. Technorati is a real-time search engine that keeps track of what is going on in the blogosphere — the world of weblogs.
Always remember, ff you write your posts and people enjoy reading them, they will return to your blog regularly and send friends. Ahh..traffic!
SEO - White Hat Is Best!
SEO- if you do what is best for your customer/client you will be rewarded for your efforts. Not all of them, however, are considered ethical. Now let's look at some of the other sides, or as they are called - HATS.
There is White Hat (follows all the guidelines, terms, and conditions set forth by the search engines), Gray Hat (follows the rules with a twist) and Black Hat (doesn't follow the search engines' rules - and buyer beware!!).
White Hat
~~~~~~~~~~
Optimize sites for competitive keywords, keyword phrases and succeed. And they succeed without resorting to spam tactics.
Gray Hat
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Optimizing sites but walking a fine line (though some report that Gray Hat is in fact Black Hat that is using techniques to achieve a white hat result).
- not quite keyword stuffing, but so close
- not invisible text, but so far down on a page and the text is so light you may not see it
Black Hat
~~~~~~~~~
Optimization consists of techniques used to get higher search rankings that are illegal, unethical and clearly outside of the search engine guidelines.
- Doorway pages
- Cloaking
- Keyword Stuffing
- Invisible text
Black Hat SEO is tempting. These tricks actually do work, temporarily. They do end up getting sites higher search rankings until these sites get penalized and banned for using unethical practices. Some may take the risk but in fact it is just not worth the risk. Bottom line, stay away from anything that even looks like Black Hat SEO.
A Pro SEO Company
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have read over and over, and do believe the statement that "SEO professional are not truly qualified unless she/he has technical skills in the design/development area". The main reason is design and site architecture are critical for an SEO campaign's success. A professional SEO needs coding, scripting, and programming skills to troubleshoot all types of sites.
Many believe their first responsibility is to their client. What the client wants is what gets done, in the way of optimization. However, it’s also important that SEOs provide complete information, as to the potential consequences of using methods counter the published search engine guidelines. Failing to inform the client of the potential negatives of a grey or black hat practice is not acting in anyone’s best interests.
Always remember, any hint of a lack of ethics in optimization is to be avoided at all costs.
White Hat SEO methods may appear slow at first but they do provide long term staying power that can survive any shifts in the search engine algorithms. White Hat techniques also let a website owner breath easier knowing that their site is safe from penalties and banning.
Web Stats
What Do They Mean?
That is always the question when you look in your hosting control panel, or a specialized program that you have to show your stats of your site, what is my Web site traffic and what does all this mean? Website statistics, more appropriately known as website analytics are defined as the measurement of visitor behavior on a website. This provides you with some insight into how a visitor reacts in your website so that you can improve your site, traffic and sales. Here is some basic info:
Hits
~~~~~~
Hits is the retrieval of any item, like a page or a graphic, from a server. When a visitor calls up a web page, for example, with two graphics, that's three hits, one for the page and two for the graphics. Because of this, hits often are not a good indication of web traffic. You should always compare hits with all other stats, especially visitors.
Visits
~~~~~~
A visit happens when someone, or search engine robots visit your site. Visits consist of one or more page views/ hits. To clarify, this means when someone comes to your site and requests one or numerous pages. One visitor can have many visits to your site, so do not confuse this with unique visitors.
Unique Visitors
~~~~~~~~~~
This refers to a person who visits a web site more than once within a certain specified period of time. Unique visitors are measured according to their unique IP address and are counted only once no matter how many times they visit the site. Unique visitors are counted only once no matter if they return to the site more than once.
Note: 'Unique Visitors' or 'Visitors' are the number of different physical people that visited your site. This statistic is far from perfect.
Page View
~~~~~~~~
Each impression, or page view, represents an actual person who has viewed a specific web page . A page view is also known as an impression.
Page views is usually known as the most accurate statistic, this information tells you how many times your pages were viewed in total.
Keep in mind the other areas of the stats that in some respects are more important, for example, what pages are people entering and what pages are they exciting on. This can tell you a great deal.
Entry Pages
~~~~~~~~~
Entry pages are where you visitor comes in and usually indicates book-marked pages, links in referring sites and/or pages that are highly ranked in search engines for your keywords. An entry page can be anywhere on your website, but it is important to note where they come in as much as it is where they leave from.
Often there are a number of pages within a website where visitors enter; it isn’t only the home page. The “Top Entry Pages” report will outline which pages are being used as entry pages. These statistics can mean huge dividends for just about any website but especially ecommerce sites.
Exit Pages
~~~~~~~~
Exit Pages are the last page a visitor sees before they leave your website. Exit pages tell you something about what your visitors are doing, and may even tell you what you need to change on the pages if the exit pages are consistent. Remember, you can't expect a visitor to stay on your site forever, however exit pages are extremely revealing because they show which pages are influencing your visitors to leave your website.
Other Stats To Consider
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Where are your visitors coming from is the most useful statistic. This provides you with a valuable list of the websites that are sending you traffic. Just take a moment and imagine the possibilities that this report can provide.
How Can You Act On These Stats
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The better analytics software program you have the better you will understand your stats. Examine the above headings in your own stats closely and search for anything that might be driving away business.
Keyword/Phrases to find your website will show you which keywords are driving the most traffic from the search engines. This is another great report because it will provide you with an indication of how important a keyword/phrases is. This will help you in deciding whether to alter your SEO strategy.
Get In The Top 10 Listings Guaranteed
Looking for traffic/SEO results? Read the fine print when you see something like this.
<fine print>
"...though we help you increase your traffic ranking and overall position, any company who guarantees Top 10 generic listings is not telling you the entire truth..."
Question, the heading says "guaranteed" and yet right in the print 'they' state "not telling the entire truth". Also, let's define "generic listings"
<Quote by www.rankforsales.com>
"Generic (organic) listings are the ones you should pay the most attention to, since, by instinct, people will usually click on them more than paid listings."
<End Quote>
So read the "fine print" again... "any company who guarantees Top 10 generic listings is not telling you the entire truth..."
If you read further on in this site you see all sorts of areas that will hurt sites. Black hat, yes and no. Grey for sure and definitely not white. Grabbing money from those who do not understand the ins and outs - without a doubt!
I have a very strong opinion, and stand, when it comes to website design, marketing the site and optimization. It angers me when I see people taken advantage of because they do not know what they should or should not do when it comes to these areas.
Anyone who understands the ins-and-outs of SEO knows that there is 'good' and 'bad' optimization.
Yes there are guidelines that all search engines expect web masters to follow. Our company DOES follow these guidelines to ensure that your site will be presented properly to all major search engines so you will be indexed and ranked properly. These guidelines also include what web masters should not do (white hat/black hat) and we continue to stay on top of these changing times. We will not do any optimizing that we feel could harm your site or your business, even if we are asked to do so.
So folks, read the "fine print" before you put out your hard earned money!
Blogs/RSS Feed
Blogs
A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily or every other day. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in chronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominently.
Blogs are having a massive impact on the lives of almost all web users. This is due to a quirk in the way the world's most popular search engine works. Unbeknownst to most, weblogs have a significant impact on Google search results. With over "150 million search queries per day", that means that weblogs are influencing over a billion Google searches a week.
Search engines love blogs! And Google especially loves web logs. But Google didn't stop there. Its insatiable appetite for fresh content spilled over to any frequently updated websites, including Weblogs. If Google noticed a page updating frequently, it started visiting that page much more frequently so it could suck the latest content into its database of over 3 billion documents. As they put it in their latest press release, "Google refreshes millions of web pages every day to ensure that Google users have access to the most current information."
Putting it Together: Google loves Weblogs (BLOGS) Did you know Google owns Blogger? Now wouldn't you want your blog at blogger?
Not only are blogs indexed by search engines, and ranked higher for fresh content, but there are very many blog search engines that index blogs by category as well as notifying when blogs are updated.
Want to see your site ranked higher? Start a blog and keep updating and not only will it help you site but your blog may even surpass your website it in the search engines ranking. A Blog will definitely increase the number of visitors to your site. They may start just reading your blog, but soon they follow into your site. You can double/triple your visitor stats in a matter of a few months if you set up you blog properly and update regularly.
RSS Feed
RSS is a text-based format, a type of XML. RSS is a method of distributing links to content in your web site that you'd like others to use. In other words, it's a mechanism to "syndicate" your content.
How does RSS syndication work? Say you publish a new web page about a particular topic. You want others interested in that topic to know about it. By listing the page as an "item" in your RSS file, you can have the page appear in front of those who read information using RSS readers or "news aggregators"
RSS also allows people to easily add links to your content within their own web pages. Bloggers are a huge core audience that especially does this.
If you understand HTML, you'll probably understand enough to do a cut-and-paste from someone else's RSS file to make your own file. Don't know HTML? Start a blog, because several blogging tools automatically generates RSS files.
Incorporating Keywords Into Your Web Site Content
When you are working on web site content development, take the time to carefully write what is going to be on each page of your website - or - evaluate the content that is currently your website to ensure you are incorporating keywords/key phrases in each page, related to THAT page. This is a very important part of optimizing your website as a whole. Remember, what is in the content is what can go in your Title tag, Description tag, and your keyword tag, per page.
Make sure, if at all possible, that you use the keyword/keyphrase in the Heading 1 and Heading 2 (at the very least), and at the beginning of the first paragraph or two. The lower in the content you put them, the less impact they have for search engine spiders and how clients/customers find you. When adding keywords/key phrases you also want to consider pluralization, as well as different spellings (US versus English spelling) for example, check vs cheque.
As well, you want to put synonymous words in your content also. There are lots of good tools for finding synonymous words. I have found Thesaurus.com very helpful and can easily be used in a Word document as you are writing html.
Repeating keywords or key phrases in your content is a good idea, but you have to consider you keyword density. it's very easy to have too high a keyword density on a page. In fact, if you repeat your keywords too many times on a page the search engines will think you're spamming, so do avoid this. The best way is to check your density, with someone like
[ Overture ] and try to keep the keyword density within the 3-5% range (as per most regulations).
When you take the time to combine your SEO efforts with content development you will begin to see the online success you have been working for.
Next time I will write about producing Marketing web content and combining SEO. Stay tuned for a brand new page!!
Mail Merge Labels
I realized from working with a client that there are so many basics that people do not know. It's not that they don't know how to learn it, it is more that they just don't have the time to learn. So I thought I would give a basic on mail merging labels.
Mail Merge Labels
1. Open Word. Make sure you have the merge toolbar showing. If not Go "Tools" "Customize" and show the merge toolbar.
2. On the Merge Toolbar click on "main document" and click labels.
3. Pick the Avery label you will be using. If you don't know, pick the label you want to use before you do any of this.
4. On the Merge Toolbar click open data source and click on the spreadsheet you want to use.
5. Insert Fields. Read the field names and insert 'next record' fields in all the cells.
6. Insert Merge Fields. Click on the toolbar icon to Insert Merge Fields from the drop down box. Make sure you know which fields you want ahead of time. You can make breaks after you have inserted the data.
7. Propagate Labels. Click on that in the merge tool bar and it takes all the merge field data to each label.
8. Merge Data to New Document. Click on that button on the merge tool bar and there you see all your data. Best bet is to the save the file and then print. If something doesn't fit right you don't want to have to do this all over again.
Hope this helps!
Podcasts
Podcasting (I know..think of radio broadcasting meets blogging). A Podcast can be released at pre-determined times. With podcasting you are able to be target to the listeners interests.
All you need is a microphone connected to your audio-in. It may not sound like as professional as you might like, but it's the content that matters.
Podcasting is more than a trend, it is a huge change in the way we will market, just as blogs/RSS feed did.
From all that I have read, it seems podcasting is here to stay. It will find its audience as did blogs. People who don't like it don't have to listen to it. But just as with the beginning of blogs, I am sure they will come around.
To read more information on Click here.
This maybe new, but don't pass this up!
Search Engine Optimization
The principles of correct, and legit SEO, is incredibly important to all websites, whether personal or a business web site. This includes proper headings ( H1, H2, H3, etc.), strong content, proper alt tags, and proper meta tags. This also means that you do not "stuff" keywords in any tags. If it looks like you are repeating keywords, to search engines, it looks like spam.
What is used in the Title tag must relate to the page, what you use in the Description tag relates to what is on the page, and the Keywords relate, and reflects, what is on the page.
Keep SEO 'clean' and 'ethical' and you simply can't go wrong. Don't be tempted to use spam techniques (thinking you may make more when in fact you just crash and burn).
Some Webmaster SEO Guidelines:
Stick to the guidelines (a couple of links listed above) and you are way more likely to outlast, and out rank, your competition. If you haven't abided by the SEO guidelines, clean up your site NOW - while you still have a chance!!
Marketing: Reach Out and Touch Someone
Ah yes, marketing. How to 'reach out and touch someone'. There are a number of ways to do this. Join newsgroups that relate to your business, have memberships with companies that relate to your business and give you a listing, and of course network. The other thing to consider is creating a newsletter, teleclass, etc., and send this information out through a broadcast.
My experience has covered several 'e-business tools' to 'reach out and touch someone'. The clients I am currently working with mostly use 1 shopping cart. This company, as a lot of them do, allow you users to import a client database so you can create broadcasts, create autoresponders to contacts, newsletters, etc.. Clients, and potential clients, can sign up there or through your site to receive your newsletter or notices of events, such as a teleclass. It's such a good idea to reach out!
Marketing is such a huge area and so many people concentrate in this area as business owners that I, in my brief attempt, have only covered one tiny little aspect of it. But do look into it.
Oh, and don't forget Blogs...next article :)
WYSIWYG Programs
I taught myself HTML way back, don't ask me how long ago :0. The first website I designed I actually put down on paper to see if it would work before I ever entered the code. I guess that comes from my programming days. As time went on I did go back to school, the University of British Columbia, and took a certificate program. I must admit that I was one of "those hard coders" that turned their nose up at WYSIWYG programs. Now don't throw rocks yet!!
In the past couple of years I have used several WYSIWYG programs and I have to admit that I do see the attraction to them. Some things are so easy to do compared to coding. So in that respect I apologize for being a coding 'snob'.
However, I still stand by my position that you still need to know how to code. In the past year I have had to repair or redo websites put together in WYSIWYG programs by others who either did not know coding or did not look to see what was happening to the code (under the hood) as they designed the site.
It only really matters what the code looks like when you want to be found by search engines. You do, don't you?!
Is Your Computer Slowing Down?
I'm on a several news groups and on more than one occasion there have been questions about their computer slowing down.
There can be at least a couple of reasons for this, especially if you use Windows 98 or lower.
If you use one or more programs during the course of the day/evening, your computer can cache a certain amount of information
that slows it down, even if you have exited the program. Heavy computer users should reboot at least two or three times
a day to clear memory and have your system running at its optimum.
The other problem that can happen is that you may have too many programs running at start up
that you are not aware of. To clear this problem go to start/run/msconfig, a box will
come up and go to the start up tab and un tick anything (programs) that you don't need
running on start up. This will ease up your memory and allow your computer to run faster.
I have also recently discovered a great program for increasing the speed of your computer. Turbo Surfer is a powerful, self installing program for Windows® 95, 98, NT, 2000, and ME which optimizes your Internet connection speed by up to 220%. You'll get faster internet speeds without buying costly hardware, or a new computer. It works with ALL Connections: AOL, Cable Modems, Phone Modems and EVEN DSL. It's a great product!
Colors/Colours
I have been working on a number of websites lately, both designing new ones and maintaining previously designed sites,
and have found the desire and/or need to change colours. These changes can be backgrounds, tables,
fonts, etc. While working on doing this so much lately, I have finally found a great site that gives
you an HTML true colour chart. So the colour you see is what you will see when your site is on the web.
I wanted to pass this great find on to you:
HTML True Color Chart
This chart, when you view it online, is a great resource for matching up colours and finding
complimentary colours. The only drawback, even with a photo quality printer, is that it
does not come out as well as when you view it. So bookmark it now as I know that anyone
who uses colours, especially in web design, will find this very handy.
When deciding on what colours to use on your web design, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. One is that you should try not use more than three colours. The other is to consider the number of people out there that are colour blind, the majority being men. Certain colours can make it difficult to view and/or read. Red and green are the hardest.
Choosing Your New Computer
This is a special article
by Michael Brown
of
Michael Brown - Computer and Business Services I asked Michael "Is it better to buy a pre-built or custom-configured computer?" The following is the great article he wrote in response to my question.
"Once upon a time, computers were selected as follows: The prospective buyer made a list of the things he or she wished to accomplish with a computer. Following that list,
the software was chosen that would best perform those tasks. Finally, a computer was selected, or design