The Top 10 Dumbest Web Site Decisions

By Kalena Jordan

Having worked with web sites for the past eleven years, I've seen a LOT of errors, poor judgment and embarrassing gaffs on the web. Sometimes they are the fault of the client, the web designer, the IT Manager, or the SEO, but human error is always to blame. The saddest thing is that the problems are usually preventable.

Here is a list of what I consider to be the Top 10 dumbest web site decisions ever, in reverse order, David Letterman style :

10) Misspelling a Domain

Back in the glory days of the late 1990's when I was working for a large Internet agency, the web designers had responsibility for the registration of domain names on behalf of clients. One particular designer had a face to face meeting with a major client, during which the client asked him to register CarTuneCentral.com (or so he thought!). The staffer did a check and was delighted to see the domain available. He made the purchase and proudly emailed the client.
An hour later his boss called him in to his office to say that he'd had a call from a very frustrated client who *actually* wanted him to register CartoonCentral.com. Needless to say the desired domain wasn't available and the whole office dined on his mistake for months.

9) Letting the Domain Name Expire

Now what type of company would allow their domain to expire a month after site launch? A very large one, that's who. I'll save the company some embarrassment and won't reveal their name but the site was offline for a total of 2 days while they scrambled to pay their registrar, sort out DNS propagation and cover their tails.

8) Flashing your Cyber Underpants

One of the most common web site management platforms provided by hosting companies used to store the site statistics in a common folder called /statistics/. You could password protect this folder, but the default was to leave it open to the public and so many unwary webmasters unwittingly published full traffic data for their site on the Internet, open to any person who knew where to look.

I learned this the hard way in a public forum from a member who said he had just reviewed my traffic for the previous month and was very impressed. Publishing site statistics for all the world to see is what I call flashing your cyber underpants and I’ve never let it happen again!

7) Publishing Sensitive Company Information

Quite a few companies have been guilty of doing this, including AOL, who published a search data report in 2006 that contained the private details of thousands of AOL customers. Although the report was taken offline within a few days, it had already been mirrored and distributed across the Internet. The fallout eventually led to the resignation of AOL’s Chief Technical Officer.

Although not quite as serious, an ex-client of mine once published a page that had notes on it from the Sales Manager about the best way to strong-arm a customer into purchasing a higher-ticket item. Apparently the web designer didn’t realize the hand-written post-it notes were not part of the web page copy. Duh!

6) Using an Insulting 404 Error Page

I clash with the web design team of one of my clients on a regular basis. Earlier this year, my client completely re-designed their web site and so I recommended they ask their web design team to design a custom 404 error page in case visitors navigated to a page on the old site that no longer existed. Their web design team put up a message that read:

"404 Error. You've obviously typed in the wrong URL. Either that or the page you are looking for no longer exists."

That was it! No apology for the missing page, no recommendation to use the navigation to find what they were looking for, just an insulting message that accuses the visitor of being an idiot. Persons viewing that page would be clicking the "back" button as fast as they could.

5) Taking a Site Offline for Maintenance

I find it fascinating that very large sites run by intelligent people still get taken offline for maintenance on a regular basis. Search engines don't understand the "Back in 15 minutes" sign and the longer the site is down, the bigger the risk.

If search bots try and index a site while it is down, they will most likely assume the previously indexed pages have expired and remove them from the search index. This means that all your hard-earned rankings could be flushed down the toilet until search engines can successfully re-index your site. Surely a mirror site for maintenance periods isn't that difficult to set up?

4) Buying a Dot Biz When the Dot Com Was Available

Ok, I'm putting up my hand on this one. I'm not going to reveal the domain but yes, I registered a dot biz domain back in 2000 when the dot com was actually available. The dot com version of my domain was bought by Yahoo a short time later and turned into a product site. Ack! My excuse is that, at the time, dot biz sites were rumored to be the next big thing and all companies were being urged to choose them over dot coms. Ok, I was wrong!

3) Allowing a Customer Complaint to Remain on a Site for 12 Months

When I was working as a public relations consultant, I was given the responsibility of re-writing the web copy of a large real estate client. One of the areas I was asked to re-write was the welcome paragraph on the Customer Feedback page where existing customers of the estate agent chain could login and leave comments about their experience.

While writing the copy, I scanned some of the customer feedback and came across an aggressive message left 12 months earlier by an obviously unhappy customer. She had used some of the most colorful language I've ever seen (and some that I hadn't) and very detailed descriptions of how she was going to take her revenge on the company for allegedly allowing a tenant to destroy her house. Nobody in charge of the web site had even noticed the comment and I still wonder how many potential customers would have been put off from using the estate agent after reading it.

2) Switching a Web Site Off for a 3 Week Christmas Vacation.

Yes, many moons ago, an ex-client of mine decided to take her entire web site offline (without telling me!) while she was on a 3 week vacation over Christmas. Only a month earlier, she had paid me $5,000 to optimize it for search engines.

It had just achieved some impressive top 10 results and all the carefully optimized pages were attracting good traffic when she shut it down and replaced the entire site with a 1 page sign that said “closed until after Christmas”. I noticed the traffic and search ranking declines in her stats and was completely flabbergasted when I found the site gone. Her response when I confronted her? "Why didn't you TELL ME this could happen?"

And the dumbest web site decision I've ever witnessed?

1) Promoting a Domain Name You Don’t Own:

My Alma Mater, the University of Newcastle, have spent thousands of dollars on television advertising here in Australia, marketing their new site for online post-graduate coursework: GradSchool Dot Com. There's only one problem. The domain for this site is actually Gradschool.com.au. They don't even own Gradschool.com!

Sadly, this glaring marketing error seems to have totally escaped them and they are happily referring to their brand as Gradschool.com on all their marketing material and throughout their .com.au domain. It's tragic to think of all the potential students typing in Gradschool.com expecting to find the University program. I see that whoever purchased Gradschool.com has slapped up some AdSense code on it so at least somebody will reap the benefits of those thousands of advertising dollars wasted by the University.

Don't let any of these web site tragedies happen to you. Make sure that your site decisions aren't in the hands of dummies!


About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.

Web Host Services: What You Can Get

By Bill McNulty

When searching for a web host you may want to look into the extra services that are offered. Although some web host companies do not offer anything more than the basics, this is not the case with the majority of them. Since there is so much competition in this industry, every web host is looking for a way to distinguish themselves. And through extra web host services they can do this without any problem at all.

As a buyer, you need to know what is available to you as far as web host services are concerned. Sure, you know that a web host company is going to offer you web hosting for your site. But in addition to this, you want to also look into the many web host services that you may be able to get along with this. In most cases, you do not have to pay for any of these extras. As long as you host your site with a company, they will be more than happy to give you these add on services free of charge. As you can imagine, this can make your time with your web host much more enjoyable. Anytime you are getting something for free you will usually have a good experience.

So what web host services out of the norm are available to consumers? This is a question that has many answers, because as mentioned above, each company has their own way of doing things. You owe it to yourself to look into a number of different companies, and then decide which web host services you are being offered. Obviously, if there are two like companies, you will want to choose the one that is offering you the most in terms of added benefits and services.

One of the most common add ons that you will come across is free domain registration. The moment that you sign up with a company offering this service, you will have the ability to register any domain name for free. While this may not be a big freebie, it is something that you will need nonetheless. This is a particularly good service to receive if you are a beginner. This way, you do not have to worry about registering your domain name with another service, and then taking the time and effort to transfer it to your web hosting company.

Another popular web host service is when the company offers free message boards to users. This may not sound like a huge deal on the surface, but being able to get in touch with other
people using the same service can be beneficial in a number of different ways. This will give you the ability to not only meet other people, but at the same time you can ask any questions that you may have. Although this may seem geared more towards beginners, even advanced webmasters can benefit from what message boards have to offer.

There are many web host services that will be available to you. After you find a few companies that offer the actual web hosting that you like, you will then want to begin to consider these extra services. They may make or break your final decision!

About The Author:

Bill McNulty loves everything tech, especially anything http://www.hostingref.com/ top 10 web hosting related. He writes for multiple tech sites on a freelancer basis and lives with his wife and 2 dogs in rural upstate New York.

Top Internet Marketing Strategies For New Websites

By Daegan H Smith

It is your first time to open shop online and you're wondering what you should do to make your presence felt. The Internet is a daunting world. It's almost as vast and unlimited as the universe, making the prospect of getting your website within your target market's radar seemingly impossible. Be that as it may, your new website still has a chance of surviving and especially if you consider the following tips.

Top Internet Marketing Strategies for New Websites

In the Internet, paid advertisements are definitely bigger and brighter, but search engines still give free advertisements a fighting chance. Here's what you can do to make your new website known without spending too much money.

Create the Best Website You Can

No Internet marketing strategy can help you if your website isn't worth visiting in the first place. Start with the design. You want the kind of web layout and design that your target market will instantly find appealing. The layout must also be user-friendly: it won't do to have your readers lost and unable to find their way back to your homepage. In most cases, navigation will be made easier by creating highly discernible links and uploading a site map.

Understand How Search Engine Optimization Works

Search engines can make or break you. If youíre not in the good side of search engines then it's almost impossible for your website to get noticed by the right people. If you want your target market to discover your website, you need to know how to please search engine spiders.

You need to understand, for instance, why using HTML codes is a positive thing, even if it offers less flexibility and options than other and more sophisticated languages. You need to understand the importance of keywords and the dos and don'ts that come along with using them.

Content Is King

Your website must offer valuable content. Search engines may be responsible for getting readers to notice your website, but it's the content that will ultimately be responsible for making them come back to your website again and again.

Content is what makes visiting your website into a habit. For content to be valuable, it must have relevance to your readers. If teenagers make up your target market then you need to discuss something they can relate to. Talking about the most popular TV shows might get them to listen to you but discussing the stock market would just fall on deaf ears.

Secondly, the data you're providing must be of interest to your target market. It's not enough to simply discuss an important subject. You need to show them what they'll get from it. Ecology is an important issue, but do people generally find time to learn more about it? But with the right perspective or approach, such as using Leonardo di Caprio as spokesperson or pointing how unawareness of ecological issues could cause them to die in five years, even the most boring of subjects will be diligently pursued.

Spell Out the Benefits

People just seem to get busier and busier everyday, and that's one of the reasons why they don't have the patience or inclination to check out websites whose benefits are ambiguous at most. If you want people to pay attention to your website, you need to find the equivalent to having a neon signage flashing the benefits of visiting your website. The message must be simple, straight forward, and powerful: let them know what they'll get and they'll come to you if they want it.

About The Author:

Daegan Smith Is And Expert Online Marketer "Wanna Lean The Secret To Making $85,147,717 Per Month While Quickly And Easily EXPLODING Your Network Marketing Organization by 7,141 People Without EVER Buying Or Calling a Single Stinking Lead?" Free CD Explains All: http://www.easymlmprofits.com

7 Steps To Improve Your Website

By Bernadette Doyle

Begin by understanding the difference between direct-response websites and brochure websites. Brochure websites have a nice, safe logical layout of information but little, if any, clear
calls to action. Direct response websites are geared towards getting visitors to take action.

1. Tell them who it's for and what you can do for them in the first few seconds. Instead of simply having your name at the top of your website, use that space to announce WHO your site is for,
and WHAT you can do for them. That means that in the first few seconds you target visitors will have the reaction "Yes, this is for me". Of course, that will be at the expense of any untargeted visitors who will click away, but you didn't want them anyway!

2. Remove anything that does not support your MWR. MWR is short for 'Most Wanted Response' a term I first heard about from Ken Evoy, author of Make Your Site Sell.

What do you want people to DO when they first visit your site? Call to arrange a consultation? Request more information? Book a coaching session? Reserve a space at your next workshop? Have a clear MWR for each and every page of your website and then only include the content that moves visitors towards your MWR and strip away anything that doesn't.

3. Capture visitors' details. Less than 1% of visitors will buy on their first visit to a website, that's why it's important to capture their details so you can follow up with them.

4. Less is more. In many of the sites I critiqued today, it was almost like the site owners were thinking "I don't know exactly what I should say to my web visitor, so I'll just throw out a
load of things in the hope that SOMETHING grabs their attention". Unfortunately, just adding more and more options or information is simply going to confuse your visitor, and if they aren't sure what to do next, they will probably take the easiest option and click away...forever!

5. Personalize your site. Include your photo and a biography. Let visitors see the person behind the website. It's true that people buy people!

6. Use a mixture of 'towards' and 'away from' language in your sales copy. Some of the sites I reviewed today were for coaches who are very solution oriented in their approach and web-copy. The trouble is, this only works for visitors who have the same solution-oriented outlook and people with problems are typically... stuck in their problems!

7. Copywriter Robert Collier said that you have to "enter the conversation that is already going on in the prospect's mind" and sometimes that means you have to start with the problems that are preoccupying them. So show people that you can both solve pressing problems as well as achieve desired end solutions.

It is critical that your direct response website connect emotionally with visitors who are in your target market. You can do this by making them feel at home so when they visit your site they know they are in the right place. Remove anything that does not lead to your most wanted response, capturing their contact details, limit unneeded text and images, making your site more personal, using the right mix of copywriting that appeals to your target market and addressing the problem visitors are experiencing and explaining the benefits of working with you.

About the Author:

(c) Bernadette Doyle, 2008. Reprints welcome so long as by-line and article are published intact and all links made live.

Bernadette Doyle publishes her free, weekly Client Magnets newsletter for trainers, speakers, coaches, consultants, complementary therapists and solo professionals. If you want to get clients calling you instead of you calling them then sign up for the Client Magnets newsletter at http://www.ClientMagnets.com today!

Web 2.Overwhelming: 22 Ways to Frustrate Your Site Visitors

By Kalena Jordan

Damian Conway is known as the "Mad Scientist of Perl" and he was my favorite speaker at Webstock 2008. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and until recently was an honorary Associate Professor with the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering at Monash University Australia.

A popular speaker and trainer, he is a former columnist for The Perl Journal and author of two books about Perl. He also runs an international IT training company which provides programmer training throughout Europe, North America, and Australasia.

Damian kicked off his presentation by revealing that his wife is responsible for him being at Webstock. A few months ago, she was trying to buy a DVD on the Internet and was yelling expletives. He went to help her and after several minutes of frustration he finally gave up. Her response was "Are they deliberately trying to make it impossible for non-geeks?" His reply was "Yes". Damian's impression is that mankind has evolved into two distinct species - typical web users / typical web designers.

Damian then showed the Irony Ahead symbol. The sad truth, he says, is that the web designers are losing the battle to the masses. There are now normal humans who can almost use web sites on a daily basis! His sacred promise is to protect your web sites from infiltration by the terrible general public.

In reverse order, here are Damien's top 22 web design ideas to fend off the non-geeks and prevent Web 2.0 from taking hold:

22) Use Zen: Confuse them with anime and odd artistic blobs that are a complete mystery. Is it a web site? Is it art? Is it impossible to enter?

21) Use yellow or black and yellow: This signals danger as in wasps and Star Trek uniforms.

20) Use xenophobia: Try geo-location as an instrument of torture. Show only products not available in their country or illegal in their country e.g. "show me products I can't buy with a credit card issued in my country".

19) Get a site that requires the "www" to work: This is known as a canonical URL to us normal people. Make the www necessary and confuse the heck out of them when they type in the domain name without the w's and get shown an error page.

18) Use variable navigational layout (VNL): Use the previous and next links as people hate them. Let's replicate it for the entire web!

17) Throw usability out the window: Navigability is the pre-requisite for usability. So let's create navigation buttons that don't go anywhere. The non-geeks will be occupied for at least half an hour. Use Javascript to turn the navigation into confusing shadowy arrows. Javascript your scrollbars so they don't look anything like regular browser scrollbars. Use back buttons that embed links that take you up a level rather than actually taking you back. Your visitors will get lost in the hierarchy. Inconsistency is important.

16) Terrorize them with typography: Most non-geeks don't care about typography. They don't even have a favorite typeface! If they do, it's comic sans. Or Impact! All they care about is whether they can read it. Therefore, typography DOES matter. Go with something unreadable! Go with Abduction 2 font or something just as annoying. Fonts are not toys people, fonts are weapons!

15) Make shipping a last minute surprise: Shipping is a powerful tool to dissuade purchasers. It delays their instant gratification. Don't let them calculate the shipping cost in the cart otherwise they can go and comparison check on other sites. Instead, use the W3-recommended 34 step method and make all these fields compulsory:

product selection
shopping cart
checkout
purchaser address
phone number
fax number
email address
social security number
payment method
billing address
shipping address
shipping method
shipping costs
income bracket
referral source
etc.

With any luck, they'll abandon the cart in total frustration.

14) Make them register and login before they purchase: They'll be naturally terrified and run off. Even better, make them register before they can even view the web site!

13) Reduce the quality of site search results: How can you minimize the quality? Don't provide site search facilities at all! Or make the options highly improbable. Don't let them search for the product. Make them search by date of manufacture, or the name of the manufacturer. Or, make them search for the type of person that they are. Or what type of person YOU think they are. Pure genius.

12) Add pages ad infinitum: Don't return more than 10 results for a search at one time, even if you have to list 250 pages of search results. God put the fold there for a reason. If you don't follow this rule, it can result in scrolling! Protect the kids from scrolling!

11) Delay their gratification or their dis-gratification: Show items that aren't in stock, services you used to provide, options that won't work for them. Only tell them a product is not available AFTER they click through to the shopping cart total. This builds up a sense of hope so you can dash it immediately.

10) Don't allow them to sort search results: This non-sortability of results preserves the natural social order. Sort things in random order. For example, don't let them sort by product type, or price. Provide an alphabetical sorting option only. Or sort according to the web designer's favorite items.

9) Use background music and lots of it: It's a sure way to irritate your users. Your music choice probably sucks if you choose it carefully enough. Don't provide a stop button. Make it restart again on every new page. They'll soon leave.

8) The little things count: Like tiny little font. It's the most effective deterrent for anyone over the age of 20. Damian finds size 4 or 3 point is pretty good. Government and news sites use it all the time to great effect. Some browsers have the ability to change text size. Thankfully, most web users Damian surveyed didn't know this until it was pointed out to them. But it's ok! Because 2 weeks later, they'd forgotten again. Tiny text is the web designer's ally.

7) Use Cute Kitten Aversion Therapy: There are some web sites that you don't want your kids to see, Damian says. One of these is the W3 HTML Validator. AAARGGGGHH! It means that solutions for non-valid HTML code could be discovered by anyone and you don't want that. So spread the message, every time you validate, someone kills a kitten!

6) Use J-version therapy: The non-geeks have a strong aversion to the letter J and things like Jscript, Javascript etc. These J languages create fear in the non-geek. Online security companies have scared them into avoiding sites with Javascript or other items starting with J because hackers use them to distribute viruses. If you're lucky, they're so convinced by these fears that they've turned off Javascript in their browsers. This means that if your site uses Javascript menus, they can't be navigated! Brilliant.

5) You can never use too many images: Encode your important data and text in an image so it can't be cut and pasted and make the images huge and dark so that they can't be printed out. Or they can be printed but they use up masses amounts of printer toner. It's a great way to scare off even the most persistent of non-geeks.

4) Play hide and seek with your site visitors: They don't like to wait, so make them. Information that is impossible to find is safe. Don't use a sitemap and make sure there is no rational hierarchy to your site. Hide your most important data on a page that has no links pointing to it!

3) Use gray: It's the new black and it goes so well with black or darker gray. When using gray, make it impossible to read. Use nano-text in gray or even gray text on white. The site visitors run away! Even better, use gray on darker gray - it's the low contrast approach. This is even more effective for site visitors with a color impairment. If all else fails, use intestinal beige. It's apparently the new gray.

2) Flash is very important in our defense against web-mortals: Clocksucking Flash they call it. Some non-geeks even have their Flash facilities turned off so make your site entirely in Flash. Once visitors arrive at your Flash page, they see - "loading 1%". This is delayed gratification at it's best! Also, don't provide a "skip intro" button. Or if you do use it, make the link move away from the mouse. Over and over again. If the visitor persists, then make it disappear entirely. If the visitor without Flash is determined to view your Flash site, provide the "You Need Flash" link. Then make them download an enormous file that maxes out their bandwidth limits. Even better, use a Flash-based installer that requires them to have Flash installed first.

1) Combine all of the above for optimum effect: This is Damian's number #1 best way to scare away non-geek visitors. His favorite example of this in action is the World Glaucoma Association. Scroll down and place your mouse over the eye for the full effect. [My own personal favorite is Fred Frap and Friends where the pink text on the purple background asks you to click on the non-existent image to enter. Nice!]

But seriously folks, Damian says, the non-geek level is the SAME LEVEL as the MAJORITY OF YOUR WEB SITE USERS. Remember this. The typical experience for web-mortals is bad. He's here to plead with us all to build software for how people really ARE. The non-geek users.

The single biggest mistake that web designers make is not doing accessibility testing on their grandparents. Your grandparents are the typical Internet users. Use the Grandma usability metric. It's not about what your client wants. It's about what your client's customers want. It's not about clever, it's about comprehension. It's not about style, it's about usability. It's not about searching. It's about finding. It's not about ambience it's about the outcomes for people visiting your site.

Web 2.0 is Web 2.0verwhelming for most people. So make their experience measurably superior.


About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.

Planning for Web Site Disaster

By Kalena Jordan

When you have a business web site that multiple people work on, one of the most difficult tasks is to manage and allocate responsibilities. For example, you might have a corporate site where the content is written by various in-house staff members, the pages are managed by your freelance web designer and your outsourced SEO is responsible for ensuring the content and code is search engine friendly.

But what happens when communication breaks down between all the stakeholders or a miscommunication occurs? It's more common than you might think and it can result in disaster for your web site. Here's a true story of how it happened to one of my clients:

The site in question was being re-designed by the client's 3rd party web designers and the client asked me (as their SEO) to send them a list of instructions to follow during the re-design and launch that would ensure they didn't lose search engine visibility. Naturally I sent the client a list of the usual things to watch out for, including:

• Ensuring that any URLs being replaced or moved had 301 redirects placed on them to their new locations.


• Transferring the optimized title and meta tags to new page versions.


• Implementing a custom 404 page; and


• Building a replacement XML sitemap for Google and Yahoo.

So a week later the client tells me that the new site is now live and would I have a quick check to see if everything is ok? I opened the site and typed in each of the URLs for the pages I had carefully optimized months before. The first one came up with a big ugly 404 Not Found error. Not a custom 404 error page, but an ugly white server-generated one with no design, no branding, no apology and (more importantly) no links back to the main site. So I tried the next one. Same story - 404 error.

As I went down the list, I became more and more concerned. Less than half of the pages I optimized had been transferred to the new site. When I checked their site logs in ClickTracks, I noticed that around half of the page views generated since the site re-launch were 404 errors. Not only that, but a quick check of Google Webmaster Tools showed a small fraction of the original number of site pages as being indexed. Obviously Googlebot had been shown the 404 errors too and had promptly removed the old pages from the Google index. Disaster!

I contacted the client and told her to get a custom 404 page implemented as soon as possible and to double check that 301 redirects from their old page URLs to the corresponding pages on the new site had been put in place by the design team, as per my instructions. Turns out the designers never received explicit instructions about this from the client and didn't know that:

a) a custom 404 page was important

b) 301 redirects were necessary to ensure the continuation of search engine indexing.

I found this news quite shocking - what web designer/programmer doesn't understand the need to redirect old URLs to new ones?

Plus, we found out later that the few pages that the designers HAD successfully transferred to the new template did not have the carefully optimized Title and META Tags transferred, meaning that all the hard-won rankings we had earned for the client had now vanished. The designer's excuse? They weren't SEO experts so didn't know tag transfer was necessary. I found this excuse pretty flimsy considering they managed to transfer the rest of the page HTML code intact.

This started a chain of urgent emails back and forth between the client, the designers and myself, with the designers blaming the client and me for not providing clear enough instructions, me blaming the designers for not taking the initiative to protect the client's site traffic during the move and the client caught in the middle trying to appease everyone. The emails escalated until finally the designers admitted defeat and acknowledged that they should have paid more attention to the client's instructions.

It took a couple of weeks for the designers to upload a custom 404 error page and I still had to manually login to the client's CMS to replace the optimized Title and META tags. As this goes to press, the client site has started to recover in the rankings, the 301 redirects are back in place, the number of pages indexed by Google is increasing, but the site stats are still showing a large number of 404 pages delivered to searchers. I expect it to take upwards of 3 months for the site to fully recover from the disaster.

The whole saga just goes to prove that you can't assume your site is in capable hands. If you are about to make extensive changes to your site design or move it to a new domain, you absolutely have to have a rollout plan in place with crystal clear instructions and tasks allocated to a team so everyone knows who is responsible for what. Otherwise you will be paying the penalties for months to come.


About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.

Ambient Findability and the Future of Search

By Kalena Jordan

Peter Morville is widely recognized as a founding father of information architecture. He co-authored the best-selling book Information Architecture for the World Wide Web and has consulted with such organizations as Harvard, IBM, the International Monetary Fund, Microsoft, the National Cancer Institute and Yahoo! Peter is president of Semantic Studios, co-founder and past president of the Information Architecture Institute and a faculty member at the University of Michigan. Peter's latest book, Ambient Findability, was published in 2005.

In his presentation for Webstock 2008, Peter called himself a crazy librarian who fell in love with the web. Peter designs sites so that people can find what they're looking for. It's not just about findability, Peter says. The structural design of shared information environments is important. The vast majority of Internet architects don't even know the term Internet architects. Content authors, bloggers etc. have a responsibility for shared information. One lesson Peter says he constantly needs to give clients is that it's not enough to provide a single taxonomy. You can bring multiple ideas and formats to a single document to a wide audience with different needs. The Stanford University site is a good example of a usable site. When you design for the web, you should provide usable navigation and a site search facility at the very minimum.

The Consumer Reports site is another good example. It doesn't stop with global navigation but gives a couple of information sub-sets to tell the user what the site database consists of. One size does not fit all in taxonomy. The Mayo Clinic use a more user-friendly design by listing all diseases by their most common name rather than the formal medical terminology. The site was re-designed with users in mind and has positively flourished as a result. It demonstrates that you need to design site taxonomies for specific audiences and users.

The elements of the user experience are multilayered. Peter is sick of the word "usability" as it means different things to different people. Depending on who you talk to, usability could mean:

useful
usable
valuable
findable
credible
accessible
desirable

All these elements are important. Peter recommends asking these three questions when designing a site layout:

1) can users find your web site?
2) can users navigate your web site?
3) can users find your products and services despite your web site?

He also claims that not enough attention is paid to accessibility these days. Your web site needs to advance your business goals and inspire trust. Peter mentioned Google search as an example. People tend to trust results that are listed high in Google. Findability and credibility are therefore increasingly connected.

Peter has provided site usability services for the National Cancer Institute. When he began working with the site, 90 percent of traffic was from the general public who had been diagnosed with cancer and were seeking specific information. Peter helped re-design the site to make sure these people found the information they were seeking about specific cancer types. At the time Peter worked on the site, an amazing 70 percent of searches on the major search engines were for specific types of cancer so the Cancer Institute used this information to improve the findability of their specific cancer pages.

We can talk about findability at the level of the object and the system, says Peter. What are the ways the object/data can be found? How do we make it easier to be found? How does the environment support the navigation and retrieval of the object/data? What he calls ambient findability is the ability to find anyone or anything from anywhere at anytime. The destination is never quite reached because perfect findability is impossible.

We're now drowning in information and suffering from information anxiety in the information age. "A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention." says Herbert Simon (Nobel Laureate Economist) or the Dilbert version of this is: "Information is gushing toward your brain like a firehouse aimed at a teacup". We are creating alternate ways to receive information via our digital networks, Google Earth being a good example. Another example is the "kid tracker" which is a GPS wristwatch your kids wear so you can know the location of your kids 24/7. Soon, people will be able to track other people every second of every day. This raises privacy concerns.

Peter showed a couple of examples of findability technology available now. Within a wireless network area, you can now use the Cisco Wireless Location Appliance to add electronic tags to items so you can locate them at any time. Hospitals use the technology to tag wheelchairs so they can be found instantly and save staff time and money searching for them. It's claimed this saves one hospital $28K per month. Another example was the keen couple who had tagging devices embedded in their hands so they could open each other's apartment doors and access each other's computers. How romantic!

So in a world where the information haystacks are getting larger, how do we create information needles? How do we solve the findability question? We need to think about business intelligence, visualizing patterns etc. Back in the 1980's Peter wrote an article claiming that the Internet will turn everyone into a librarian and now it's happened. We can't stop talking about meta data, social media labels, bookmarks and Flickr tags! In 5-10 years, Peter thinks that many sites will become like Amazon in terms of findability.

Search is one of the most important ways we learn. "Search has become the new interface of commerce" says John Battelle. Search startups such as Endeca and Trexy are pioneering new ways to search. Everyzing is a search engine that allows you to search audio files by individual words within the transcript. Buzzillions is an example of a site using both structured meta data and tag search. Hybrid search solutions are launching all the time. Google is struggling with how to provide data the way people categorize it. Google Book Search is an example of a site with usability issues. Flickr solved this issue by using clusters to sort photo tags, with huge success.

Peter says that we need to focus on usability in the future. Everyone working on your site needs to have the same goals in mind. He completes his presentation with the story of the three stone cutters. There is a guy wandering in the wilderness and he comes upon a quarry and asks the workers there what they're doing. The first stone cutter is working at a slow pace and says "I'm making a living". The second guy is working really hard and fast. He says "I'm doing my very best". The third guy is working at a pace somewhere in the middle but with a smile on his face. He says "I'm building a cathedral".


About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.

10 Reminders for Usability Web Design to Make Site Visitors Adore You

No matter how hard you try, there is always something wrong with your website. There is always a critic. I have a friend outside the USA who thankfully alerts me of my 404 error pages, which I appreciate, even though I told him over the weekend he was making me scream at my own inability to be perfect.

You don't want to be caught with your pants down when trying to present a professional site. Since my work permits me to see a great deal of websites and Internet applications, I can note common problems. This list is not about the common ones. This list is for repetitive web design practices that drive site visitors crazy because we keep driving them crazy.

Here's what we do:

1. There is not enough persuasive or value oriented information to convince visitors to stay on the page. I compare this to car shopping. Automobile's in a showroom have a sheet of paper taped to the window that lists every detail you could possibly imagine about that particular car. How often do you actually stand in one spot, directly in front of the window, squinting to read the tiny words on the page? Usually you are spotted by eagle-eyed car salespeople who leap to your side and begin telling you all the reasons why the car is cool. They ask what you had in mind too, and from there, start to narrow down matches that fit your requirements. Write as if you are a car salesperson for your homepage. Cut a deal. Introduce the manager. Offer a test drive.


2. Don't place 100 links to the inside pages from your homepage. It is not a playground where you run screaming out onto the area trying to beat the first person to the swing set. A homepage should be married to your site requirements and especially your visitors' top tasks. This could be price checking, searching for part numbers or clearance items, finding your contact information or finding the only baby items that are not pink or blue on the planet.


3. Quit talking about yourself so often. Nobody cares how great you are. What they do care about is what you have for them that's worth their time and money. If you're the All Powerful Oz, you can slip that in, but just remember that even OZ lied to Dorothy. If you need help with your ego, try the We We Monitor.

Feedback and email newsletter forms are some of the funniest things I've witnessed on the web. Why would you demand a phone number from someone who is just letting you know your links are broken? If you want general feedback or better yet, sales leads, your form should scream trust. Start by trusting that if site visitors want you to call them, they'll enter their phone number. Requiring one is something managers tell you to do. Ignore them. Consider your prospects that desire email contact only or impress them with customer service clues with a choice of either email or phone contact. Never require a phone number for free newsletter signups, but if you insist on this unheard of practice you invented, offer a sample of the newsletter that requires that phone number and by all means, tell us why you want to call us.

4. If your navigation only goes forward, you didn't learn to dance properly. The actual steps are:
   
   
   • Move forward
   • Move back if your partner doesn't like that move
   • Continue forward if your partner really liked where you landed and trusts where you want to go next.
   
   In other words, don't rely on the "Back" button to go backwards. Guide your visitor's steps backward, forward and side to side with breadcrumb navigation, embedded text links, buttons or links that continue a task's forward momentum. Design navigation to be fluid and effortless. Your visitors should be able to glide along the dance floor and not get lost or spun around into dizzying loops.


5. Application functionality. If you only knew what exists out there in web site land. For example, there was a travel site for camping that only lets you book hotel rooms because the campgrounds weren’t programmed into the options anywhere. There was the application with many parts in the process, however, no matter what link or button was pushed, it only landed on one of those parts. An application is only intuitive if you program its brains properly.


6. Mystery links confound visitors. Non-descriptive labels force us to guess where we will end up. While I love a good game of hide and seek as much as the next person, when I think I know where you're taking me and you take me somewhere totally different, I stop letting you drive.


7. Related to this are Absolute Shock Links. These are navigation links that take you to PDF files without any warning. Since it takes time for the computer to go pull Adobe out of the kitchen, rev it up, load the file and then I swear you have to resize the thing from 200% down to something that doesn't make you get the shakes reading, well, you can see how a little warning is appreciated. The other form of visitor link shock treatment is linking to a totally new domain, with new layout and brand new navigation and no way back because it opened up a new window and cut off all ties to where you were. At least, if you plan on dumping your visitors off somewhere new, work out a nice little warning system and arrange visitation time with the Mothership site.


8. If you want to capture someone's attention, do it above the page fold. Large monitors didn't signal the end of browser laziness. We still like an incentive to use the mouse to scroll, hover or click. If half the page is needed to describe how to use a contact or sales lead form, what is doing business with you like?


9. If you have a FAQ, there had better be a good reason for making your visitors go to a page that displays a long list of questions and answers. They want you to answer the question when they have the question. I remember when I used to show horses and entered jumping classes that required me to memorize the course I'd need to guide my horse around. I could never understand why they didn’t put directions inside the show ring itself that said "Turn left here", "Weave around these scary high jumps" and "Slow down, the judge usually stands about here." A FAQ is nice for backup if you have a complicated process, but user instructions during the actual task are far more considerate and easy to remember.

Finally, don't despair. Web site surfers are often the most incredibly patient and forgiving people, especially if you offer something they want. Just remember to show them where you put it.

About the Author:

Usability Consultant, Kimberly Krause Berg, is the owner of UsabilityEffect.com (www.usabilityeffect.com), Cre8pc.com (www.cre8pc.com), and Cre8asiteForums (www.cre8asiteforums.com/). Her background in organic search engine optimization, combined with web site usability consulting, offers unique insight into web site development. Copyright 2007 Cre8pc.com. All Rights Reserved. Reprint rights by Permission of the Author

Hand Visitors the Keys to Your Web Site

Recently, I wanted to use my car but couldn't find my car key. The last I'd seen it, I was handing it to my daughter, two days ago.

First, I 'texted' her in school, so she wouldn't get into trouble for having a cell phone with her. She typed back, "u hv." Then, I called my husband, who has amazing psychic abilities an hour away from home. He has no idea where my car key is. Fortunately, I had a spare key and of course, later in the evening, my daughter found the original key sitting by her computer, buried in the world's scariest Teenager's Room.

It took all day to solve the missing car key mystery. I stuck with the search because I like my car and like to drive it.

Do you ever hope your web site visitors feel the same way about your web site? Have you driven it around the countryside before offering them the keys to it?

I've Come to Drive Your Web Site

I recently visited a web site that was redesigned. It looked professional and attractive. It was ready for visitors, but perhaps not me. My goal was to find out where the products were and secondly, how to order them. However, the first big whammo! object on the page was a video of a person talking about a product.

This isn't a bad thing. But I'm new. I've just nestled myself into the homepage car seat. I want to look around, play with the radio, adjust the rear view mirror, figure out where they'll let me put my coffee mug and by golly, is that a sale item over there?

I don't want to watch a video yet and their's takes up a huge chunk of homepage real estate, above the page fold. I'm sure it's very nice and I'm sorry for scrolling past it. I came with a mission in mind. Did they build a site for me to carry out my task?

Farther down the page, I finally discover the Way To Our Products click path. I click the link, which takes me to another page with a search function and after a few tries at getting the right search criteria down, I finally arrive at a product I'm interested in. It's been 10 minutes, but YES! I've made it down their web site driveway.

It's a good thing I want to drive their web site because after 10 minutes of figuring out where they put everything, I'm thinking I want to drive a sports car.

Navigation for web sites, especially large sites, is never easy to map out. It takes planning and consideration for visitors’ goals. It has to help visitors complete a task. On this particular web site, which was very attractive, they didn't put a "How to Order" button or link on the product page.

I had no car key. I couldn't start their web site engine. All I was able to do was play "pretend driver" and imagine I was doing something on their web site, because that's about all they designed it to let me do.

The moral of this story?

The next time you design a web site, its okay to take it for a joy-ride. You've earned that right. But, make sure you throw the keys to other drivers and let them take it on the highway or down the street to Starbucks. These people are your user testing hero's.

Trust me when I say that many of them crave bumpy roads and purposely love to drive web sites like maniacs, just to see what that baby can do.

But, remember to get your keys back when they're finished.


About the Author:

Usability Consultant, Kimberly Krause Berg, is the owner of UsabilityEffect.com (www.usabilityeffect.com), Cre8pc.com (www.cre8pc.com), and Cre8asiteForums (www.cre8asiteforums.com/). Her background in organic search engine optimization, combined with web site usability consulting, offers unique insight into web site development. Copyright 2007 Cre8pc.com. All Rights Reserved. Reprint rights by Permission of the Author

Usability and SEO - Red Light, Green Light

By Kim Krause Berg

Another article has appeared on the topic of SEO and Usability and how these two different skill sets benefit each other. The latest, Usability and SEO. Which comes First?, written for Search Engine Watch by Eric Enge, caught my eye because he wrote:
"What I want to emphasize here is one key point: Usability comes first, and SEO comes second."
It's funny to hear that statement coming from a professional SEO.

In the late 1990's, when I offered search engine optimization services, I didn't get the call for help until the web site was launched and swimming for dear life in the search engine pool. In those days, there were lots of search engines. SEO came last, after the design and after people were intended to use it. If they ever found it, that is.

During the past ten years, acceptance by companies to work search engine marketing techniques into their web site pages has vastly improved. User centered, persuasive design, on the other hand, are still whispers in the wind. Will it take another ten years for usability and accessibility to be as justified as marketing a web site property?

What opened my eyes was working in user interface design and discovering that usability came last, AFTER SEO. It was always a pleasant surprise to hear someone on the design team inquire about image alt attributes or fuss over page title tags. Unfortunately, I realized they only knew these things mattered because some of my design team mates owned their own personal web site businesses on the side. It wasn't something the company demanded for itself. They were just lucky the web site designers had their acts together.

User centered design still gets shoved around. As it makes its way into the world of search engine marketing, the experience reminds me of the game "Red Light, Green Light". The caller yells, "Green light!" and everybody runs forward, willy nilly, confident, trying to get to the finish line first. Then, the caller shouts, "Red light!" and suddenly everyone stops. Frozen. They have to hold their position. They can't breathe or giggle, as they wait for their next instruction.

Corporate Blinders

I was recently part of a conversation whereby a man was describing his company's future plans. Presently, they sell products online locally and are now moving into a neighboring country. After this, they plan on going global.

As he describes it, they have no usability person in the entire company. They have search engine marketers. But, they have no idea how to sell online internationally. They don't understand what browsers are popular outside the USA. They don't know how to make forms usable for global customers. User behavior and habits vary by culture, even down to how web pages are read. They assume their present website will work everywhere. I see this constantly and wonder how some corporations survive with such tunnel vision.

Usability is misunderstood and therefore, not even considered a worthwhile investment until sales stop or worse, a lawsuit appears by someone unable to use the site.

It's Not Who Goes First

Whenever I see phrases like "Usability is first, SEO is second" or "SEO is first, usability is second", or "SEO doesn’t need usability", I don't agree with the competition this sets up.
Both disciplines are vital to the air your web site breathes. They are equal sides of the same lung.

Usability, accessibility and search engine marketing practices are united partners because they're focused on the web site visitor. We can all walk up to these customers and shake their hand together.

About the Author:

Usability Consultant, Kimberly Krause Berg, is the owner of UsabilityEffect.com (www.usabilityeffect.com), Cre8pc.com (www.cre8pc.com), and Cre8asiteForums (www.cre8asiteforums.com/). Her background in organic search engine optimization, combined with web site usability consulting, offers unique insight into web site development. Copyright 2007 Cre8pc.com. All Rights Reserved. Reprint rights by Permission of the Author

Web Site Feedback as Your Secret Online Marketing Tool

By Kim Krause Berg

There's a small trick I do with my online order form that helps to identify one of the first problems a web site may have. I purposely don't ask for a business address or phone number right away. I don't want to know what these are. As a web site usability consultant, when I visit a client's web site for the first time, learning how to contact them is my first official task. If I can't locate this information, or it's a pain in the neck to find, I've discovered their first customer service issue.

I wouldn't recommend that you do this with your online business, especially if you are selling products. Your responsibility is to gather accurate information for your transactions immediately so that you can conduct business in an efficient, courteous manner. I, too, have reasons to be more formal, depending on the project. Both you and I have a strong desire to conduct business or provide information in a positive, productive way.

If we do not, how do we know when we've failed? How do we know when we've succeeded? If we don't make the effort to include customers' needs and desires in our interaction with them, and our competitors do, what message does this send? Are you inviting user feedback?

Dear Google, Your Application is Groovy

Search marketers know that local searches are a new arena for promoting online businesses. One way to do this is by informing Google Maps that a business exists. When Google has this information, with data provided by a site owner or their Internet Marketing Consultant, it is more likely a search for your product or service, in your town, will display your business.

I decided to enter my business into the Google Maps application (http://maps.google.com/). There are several steps to the application, with helpful user instructions to guide you. When I reached the end, I had several options for how Google could verify that it was I submitting the data, rather than someone not associated with my business. This extra effort towards accuracy signals a desire to be customer service oriented.

Since I believe in positive reinforcement, I would have liked to have sent a "high five" to Google because I had a good experience using their application. However, on the last screen, there was no place to offer feedback of any kind. I couldn't rate it. I couldn't recommend it to someone. I couldn't send an email. I couldn't answer a one-question quick survey such as "Did you enjoy adding your business to Google Maps?" or "Did you have any problems entering your business and if so, please send us your experience."

I know Google is user centric. This is a missed opportunity for user feedback. It's a missed opportunity to get a pat on the back for a job well done. We all like to hear about when we've done something a site visitor appreciates.

Feedback as User Generated Content

Online customer feedback seems to be tucked somewhere on the last page of site requirements. Forcing visitors to navigate their way through a thick forest of page elements just to locate how to communicate with you creates frustration. Worse, it's a lost opportunity to obtain user generated content for your web site.

User generated content can be a great marketing arm if you understand how to invite feedback and apply it.

I have a book addiction, so to help support it, I buy from Amazon's used book dealers who sell at discounted prices. Shortly after a book arrives, inevitably Amazon follows up with an email invitation to answer a quick survey about the service provided by their third party vendor. The survey is simple, often one or two easy questions focused on a rating scale, and in less than a minute it's completed. The only reason I even bother to respond to them is because I know Amazon issues very fast surveys.

They've earned my trust because I know what to expect from them.

Products are purchased from Amazon as well. I bought a herbal product through them that my doctor recommended after knee surgery. Amazon responded with an email containing a link to a product survey. This one permits user feedback in an interesting way.

"We invite you to submit a review for the product you purchased or share an image that would benefit other customers. Your input will help customers choose the best products on Amazon.com."

The survey is two questions. The first asks if you are over 13. The second is a rating where you can assign 1 – 5 stars. This is followed by an opportunity to enter a title for your review, and a huge comment field to write your review. Alternatively, there is a radio button that allows you to submit a video review.

Consumers can link to the product page in their review. You can "tag" your review with keywords or a category label for the Amazon search engine. Accepted reviews appear on the site in 48 hours.

By getting customers involved, a web site opens the door to user generated content. This is also another outlet for creative online marketers looking to place content and promote products.

Reach Out in the Darkness

By appealing to feelings and emotions, you'll increase a customer's desire to contact you. One sure-fire way of grabbing their heart is to suggest you'll take something away that they care about.

You can ask for feedback by presenting questions such as "Should we remove [insert beloved gadget or site pleaser here]?" One popular topic is asking readers if they mind if you include a few ads. The point is that you need not be afraid to take the initiative. Let your visitors know what you may be considering and offer them a chance to respond. If you strike a nerve, their feedback may be unwelcome if they blog about it, or if you're lucky, they'll send praise. Take into consideration whether you want feedback to be public or private.

Sometimes you won’t have a choice.

In the early stages of Danny Sullivan's new Sphinn site for search marketers, I blogged publically about the lack of a place to post usability topics there. My blog post caught the attention of Sullivan and his loyal band of developers. He responded in my blog, and our dialog became a news story. They added a Usability category because the resulting user feedback justified the inclusion.

It didn't stop there. Sphinn readers are encouraged to ask questions, submit ideas for new features and propose solutions to known problems, in the forum-like space. Danny or his staff responds publically.

By enabling most user feedback to be out front, they're creating content. Behind this content is an enormous message from Third Door Media that customer service is a top priority.

Free Candy for Your Feedback

A food shopping chain in my area places customer service directly on the opposite side of the cash registers, where we get fast help. I once had a vegetable my cashier couldn't identify and he yelled across to the customer service desk for help to verify what I told him it was. It used to be that retail stores stuck customer service in the farthest corner away from the action. Do you do this too?

You can turn feedback into a promotion device or funnel it into site enhancements.

1. Be there when they need you. Place your Contact page in your global navigation so that it appears on every page. Increase the font size of your toll-free phone number.


2. Provide a feedback form, but make it short. Be sure to clearly indicate your form is "quick". Some visitors will balk at polls, surveys or forms that require a time investment. Make sure your drop-down menu has an "Other" category. Don't require registration first. Be very clear with visitors about what you intend to do with the feedback.


3. Watch labels. Amazon calls their customer service page "Help", but that word conjures up a FAQ page, not user feedback. If you provide a form, say so with "Feedback Form" or "Your Fast Feedback".


4. Don't make anyone feel insignificant. Amazon has an option to sign-in before offering feedback and in smaller text offers permission for non-members to contact them. However, another link for "Express" feedback is for members. Not all feedback is created equal? Get permission to use any user generated content on your site.


5. Invite product reviews, guest blog writers, paid product reviews, video, audio, snapshots. Turn your customers into your personal sales force by establishing trust. Let them edit or remove reviews later. Link back and pass "link juice".

Lastly provide incentives such as coupons, free shipping, fee discounts and free samples to those who were unhappy with a product. Many companies truly loathe dissatisfied customers and will bend over backwards to please them. Show you want their feedback by encouraging creative opportunities for them to do so.

About the Author:

Usability Consultant, Kimberly Krause Berg, is the owner of UsabilityEffect.com (www.usabilityeffect.com), Cre8pc.com (www.cre8pc.com), and Cre8asiteForums (www.cre8asiteforums.com/). Her background in organic search engine optimization, combined with web site usability consulting, offers unique insight into web site development.
Copyright 2007 - 2008 Cre8pc.com. All Rights Reserved. Reprint rights by Permission of the Author

Successful Website - Secrets

By Jerry Goldfarb

Does your business have a presence on the Internet? Is it doing well? Did you know that the most important factor effecting your business on the internet is your web site? No matter how good your product is, no matter how low your product is priced at, success on the internet depends wholly on your website. If the website is not professional looking, the chances of your
success are slim.

This article assumes that you are conversant with HTML and includes a few tips on designing a professional looking website.

* The home page should load in the browser in less than 8 seconds at 56.6 Kbps connection. The customer never waits, costing you precious business.

* Search Engines are the agents that bring traffic to your site; about 80% of web traffic comes through search engines today. To make your website friendly to search engines, make sure that proper META tags are included in each of the pages. Before you edit the site or make one, make sure that you understand how to optimize the website.

* Choose your backgrounds and colors carefully. Dark colors and interesting backgrounds take the focus away from the content. Maintain the color and background theme throughout the site.
Colors have an effect on the mood of the visitor. Choose carefully as per your requirements.

* Choose not to use animation on you site. Animation causes slow loading speed and also looks unprofessional.

* The home page should contain relevant information on what you are offering. If the visitor cannot find the product or service at the home page, you will lose him forever.

* Avoid using banners. If you need to use them, keep them limited to 1 per page.

* Always display contact information on every page of your website. Also keep the response times minimal, within 48 hours to promote better relationships.

* Make sure all links and images are working properly on the website. Check for grammar in the content. A professional website should not have mistakes in it and should contain a logo on each page. Make sure that a visitor can get from the start to the end of his destination within 4 clicks.

* The navigation should be simple and easy. Keep all navigation links together.

* Java and frames should be used sparingly, to speed up loading times and to ensure search engine friendliness.

* Finally before uploading, check the site loading different browsers. All browsers are not made equal.

* Keep your site up-to-date and change content every fortnight. The regular visitors should have a reason to come back.

For more information and tips, visit http://www.cobbwebdesign.com/.

About The Author:

Jerry Goldfarb

For more information and tips, visit http://www.cobbwebdesign.com/.

Improving Conversion Rates

By David Andrew Smith

You have optimised your website and attracted a large number of inbound links by one means or another. The results of this are that your site now appears on the first page of the top three
search engines, Google, MSN and Yahoo, for your chosen keywords or phrases. You have cracked it! Now you are getting hundreds of visitors a day to your website. Unfortunately very few are staying to browse your site and even fewer are purchasing your products or enquiring after the services you offer.

You must look closely at your site to find the reason behind this if you wish to improve your conversion rates. There are two immediate actions you can take. Have you optimised your site for the search engines or your visitors? You should always optimise your site for your visitors as they will provide you with your income not the search engines. The search engines are simply a means to an ends.

It is better to have twenty visitors to your site 15 of whom purchase a product or service than it is to have 500 of whom only 5 make a purchase. When developing your site keep in mind your potential customers and put text into the site that they will appreciate, like and find informative. Never write your copy with the search engines in mind and those omnipotent algorithms. Algorithms do not make enquiries or purchases people do.

If your copy is attractive and readable and encourages real people to contact you or buy a product then it is highly likely to be equally attractive to the search engines. When writing your copy you should not be trying to 'sell' your product or service with blatant over the top advertising. Be more subtle. You are fulfilling a wish or a need or solving a problem so be
informative. People have carried out a specific search so the need is already there you have to now give them the information they need to convince them to purchase of you. So as always the
content is the key to making sales as well as attracting the attention of the search engines.

You must work hard at getting this content right. The second line of investigation is to analyse your sites visitor statistics carefully Look at each visitor and how they arrived at your site. That is what search terms did they use? What page did they land on? What pages did they navigate through? What page did they exit on? What area of the World or country did they come from? If they made no enquiry or purchase, look at their search phrase, and where on your site they went, and attempt to calculate why they left without making that enquiry or purchase. Was it because their search was not appropriate for ypour actual product or service? Do you not perhaps provide your service to their particular area? Did they miss or could not find exactly what they wanted on your site because of badly designed navigation paths? Or is it perhaps because the text is simply not up to standard?

If you think it is a structural problem then you can alter this so that people find it easier to navigate to places on the site that they actually want. It may also be a matter of your content so you can change this.

By constantly monitoring your site's statistics you can dramatically increase your conversion rates, that is, convert more of your visitors into paying customers. Finally do keep note of what you do so that you can accurately monitor the changes you make to find out if and by how much they are making a difference.

About The Author:

David Andrew Smith runs a successful contract cleaning company http://www.wesparkle.co.uk for both commercial and domestic customers in the UK. He has devoloped and maintains the company's website.

What Does Your Website Say About Your Business?

By Tim Knox

Q: My business is very small, just me and two employees, and our product really can't be sold online. Do I really need a website?
-- Robin C.

A: Congratulations, Robin, you are the one millionth person to ask me that question. Smile for the cameras, brush the streamers and confetti from your hair and listen closely, because I'm about to answer for the millionth time what has become one of the most important and often-asked questions of the digital business age.

Before I answer, however, let's flash back to the very first time I was asked this question. It was circa 1998, during the toddler years of the Internet, just after Al Gore laid claim to having given birth to the concept a few short years before.

I was giving a speech on the impact of the Internet on small business at an association luncheon in Montgomery, Alabama. My motto then was: Feed me and I will speak. I have the same motto today, but I now expect dessert to be included in exchange for the sharing of my vast wisdom.

In 1998, which was decades ago in Internet years, the future of electronic commerce or "ecommerce" as it's come to be known, was anybody's guess, but even the most negative futurists agreed that all the signs indicated that a large portion of future business revenues would be derived from online transactions, or from offline transactions that were the result of online marketing efforts.

So, Robin, should your business have a website, even if your business is small and sells products or services that you don't think can be sold online? My answer in 1998 is the same as my answer today: Yes, if you have a business, you should have a website. Period. No question. Without a doubt. Thank you, drive through.

Now serving customer number one million and one.

Also, don't be so quick to dismiss your product as one that can't be sold online. Nowadays there is very little that can not be sold over the Internet. More than 20 million shoppers are now online, purchasing everything from books to computers to cars to real estate to jet airplanes to natural gas to you name it. If you can imagine it, someone will figure out how to sell it online.

Internet marketing research firms predict that online revenues will range between $180 and $200 billion dollars in 2003. They also predict that the number of online consumers will grow at a rate of 30-50% over the next few years. These numbers alone should be enough to convince you that your business should have a website.

Let me clarify one point: I am not saying that you should put all your efforts into selling your wares over the Internet, though if your product lends itself to easy online sales, you certainly should be considering it.

The point to be made here is that you should at the very least have a presence on the World Wide Web so that customers, potential employees, business partners, and perhaps even investors can quickly and easily find out more about your business and the products or services you have to offer.

That said, it's not enough that you just have a website. You must have a professional looking website if you want to be taken seriously. Since many consumers now search for information online prior to making a purchase at a brick and mortar store, your website may be the first chance you have at making a good impression on a potential buyer. If your website looks like it was designed by a barrel of colorblind monkeys, your chance at making a good first impression will be lost.

One of the great things about the Internet is that it has leveled the playing field when it comes to competing with the big boys. As mentioned, you have one shot at making a good first impression and with a well-designed website, your little operation can project the image and professionalism of a much larger company. The inverse is also true. I've seen many big company websites that were so badly designed and hard to navigate that they completely lacked professionalism and credibility. Good for you, too bad for them.

You also mention that yours is a small operation, but when it comes to benefiting from a website, size does not matter. I don't care if you are a one-man show or a ten thousand employee corporate giant; if you do not have a website you are losing business to other companies that do. Here's the exception to my rule: It's actually better to have no website at all than to have one that makes your business look bad.

Your website speaks volumes about your business. It either says, "Hey, look, we take our business so seriously that we have created this wonderful website for our customers!" or it
says, "Hey, look, I let my ten-year old nephew design my site! Good luck finding anything!"

What does your website say about your business?

Here's to your success.

About The Author:

Tim Knox Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker
http://www.prosperityandprofit.com
http://www.dropshipwholesale.net http://www.smallbusinessqa.com
http://www.timknox.com

Affiliate Tip - Build A Website

By Nell Taliercio

One of the first things you should do as an affiliate marketer is to build you own website. Yes, you can market affiliate programs without it by adding links to your email or signature file on message boards, but you will be very limited in how much you can earn this way. Building a website allows you to expose the products you are promoting to a much larger audience with less effort.

Decide on a Topic

Your first step is to decide what you would like your website to be about. Find a topic you like, something you are passionate about. You will be spending a lot of time creating content for your site, so it may as well be something you enjoy reading and writing about. Your enthusiasm for the subject will shine through as well, and will get your visitors interested. Once you have your topic, make sure there are affiliate products available that compliment the site and that there are people interested in buying it.

Pick a Domain Name

Use a site like register.com, or your web host's site to research available domain names. It helps to have one of your major keywords in your domain name. So if you decided your website will be about growing roses, try to work "rose" in the domain name. You want your domain name to be easy to remember and easy to type. Try to avoid using dashes in the name and find something that's available as a dot com address.

Hosting

The next step is to set up a web hosting account. You should be able to get by with a basic personal website package to begin with. Get some recommendations from others when it comes to choosing the actual hosting company. You want a service that is reliable and has good customer service. After all, you won't be making any money when you site is down. I have been using Dayana hosting for years and highly recommend them.

Site Builder or Software

Let's talk about how you can build your website. Your options are using a site builder, like internetbasedfamilies.com or software like Microsoft FrontPage, or my favorite x-site pro. A site builder is usually easier to use in the beginning and hosting is included. You will pay a monthly fee for the software and hosting combined. If you build your site using software like x-site pro or FrontPage, you have the added initial expense of buying the software, but your monthly hosting costs are usually lower. Of course a third option is to have someone else design the site for you. You should still get familiar with the site builder or software, so you can make changes to the site.

Getting Traffic To The Site

Your last step will be getting traffic to your site. Optimize your pages for search engines to get free traffic. You can also write articles and submit them to article directories. Pay per click advertising and buying ads on other related sites or newsletters are also great ways to drive traffic to your site.

About The Author:

For more information about websites go to http://www.mommysplace.net and for more information about affiliate marketing go to http://www.nellnews.com

Learn How To Accept Payment Online From Your Customers

By Paolo Basauri

Whether you own thousands of dollars or just a few hundred-at least two hundred, and you are providing a service, it may be a good idea for you to check into accept payment online from your
customers. This is a type of merchant status and the first place for you to look to achieve that status is the bank you do business with. Just because you may have been doing business with them for a long time doesn't mean they will automatically give you merchant status though, and if they turn you down, don't worry, you have other options. You can try a couple of other banks or you can try other companies that specialize in issuing accounts to online merchants. Do a Google search and type in credit card processing, you will find many outfits looking for businesses seeking merchant accounts. This will not be a cheap endeavor either; start-up fees to accept payments online can amount to around $200 and monthly processing fees of around $20 dollars.

While searching for your merchant account so you can accept payments online, you should also realize that you are going to have to make your customers feel safe while doing business with you online. Wherever you buy your credit card processing should also supply you with a secure transaction environment, if they don't find one some where else before you start accepting
payments online. Despite what you may have heard about accepting payments online, credit card payments are still one of the safest payment methods available online. There are many
fraud-prevention tools out there so check them out and get one that will suit your needs. You can also protect yourself by using the card validation code 2 {CVC2} and the card verification value {CVV2} verification systems of MasterCard and Visa, respectively. These verification services use the three-digit codes printed on all MasterCard and Visa cards to help you determine whether your customers are using legitimate cards. Also, you may want to ask prospective processors about the costs of storefront solutions that you should have to make
your website a success, things like shopping carts, Web hosting, online payment gateways, virtual checks, customer tracking, databases for your orders, and a way to calculate tax and shipping charges. These are all the things you need for a successful Web site business.

Shop around for a credit card processor that best suits your needs. Talk to several different processors and don't be afraid to ask questions. Find out about:

The discount rate: The percentage of each transaction paid to the merchant account provider. If your monthly charges are less than a certain volume, the processor may charge a higher percentage. Just make sure you read all the fine print before you start doing business with the services you need to run your own business. You want your customers to feel secure in all aspects of doing business with you, so they will keep buying your products and you can accept payments online.

About The Author:

Leeanna is an expert author writing for accept payment online http://www.onlinepaymentsystem.org

So That's What Goes on a Home Page!

By Marcia Yudkin

In the early days of the World Wide Web, the word went around that the thing to do on a home page is to heartily and sincerely welcome the visitor. Today, this is unnecessary, cliched and ineffective. Instead, an effective home page needs to quickly orient the visitor to what the business or professional practice offers, distinguish these offerings from competitors' and direct the web site visitor what to do if they are interested in learning more.

It's especially important to make a strong and clear presentation on the home page if you want perfect strangers coming from a search engine to spend more than 10 seconds on the site when determining whether or not it is relevant to them. Getting business from such strangers is one of the major payoffs of having a web site, and they lack the patience of someone who has already had contact with you or been referred by a trusted source. Even people seriously
inclined to hire you don't have endless patience to wade through hot air, jargon or superfluous preliminaries.

Therefore, a home page must make it possible to answer these questions within 10 seconds:

• What is being described or sold here? What kind of business is this?


• Why should I do business with this company rather than its competitors?


• What should I do to find out more or get in touch?

In judging web sites for the Webby Awards, I have seen as many rich, large companies as small ones overlook the first essential for a home page - set the context. Orient the visitor. The perfect stranger may need to know things that you assume everyone already knows, such as:

1. What business are you in? Include a commonly understood industry name or the generic name of your primary product or service prominently in the home page copy, if it's not already part of your business name or in the tag line. When this information isn't plainly and obviously stated, many visitors are screaming to themselves, "What IS this?" as they hit the back button on their browsers.
2. Who do you serve? So many businesses - banks, restaurants, dentists - leave it unspoken what state or province and even what country they are in when that's essential to someone figuring out whether or not this business meets their needs. When location plays a crucial role in service, make it unmistakable where the business is. Other times, the answer to this question is more subtle. You need to indicate that you work with Fortune 500 companies, or mostly with authors, or with ambitious fitness professionals and health club owners.
3. Why should someone do business with you? The best kind of answer to this question involves presenting the benefits someone gets from buying your products or services. Indeed, I recommend putting such benefits right in your home page headline. For instance, for a caregiving support site I created this headline: With Support, Caregiving Becomes a Rewarding Journey. For a site about a book on outstanding women scientists and artists, the headline read: Learn From Accomplished Women Role Models How to Create a Fulfilling Lifelong Career. Note the inviting tone of these headlines. Within the paragraphs of the home page copy, refer again and again to what customers get and what makes you different from competitors.
4. What should I do next? Even though you provide navigation links for people to choose where to go next at the site, it's effective to say explicitly what someone with such and such an interest should do. Your call to action might have more than one part, such as: To learn more about how Hyana Heights Club helps you stay healthy and fit, click here. To book your free tour and complimentary aerobics class, click here.

Use these guidelines to create or redo a home page, and you'll enjoy a significantly improved response from your web site both from people landing on your site from search engines and those already somewhat interested in what you offer. There's much more involved in turning web site visitors into customers, but you'll certainly thereby have laid the groundwork for a reasonable return on your web site investment.

About the Author:

Marcia Yudkin (marcia@yudkin.com) has helped to judge the Webby Awards for six years, as well as the Inc. Magazine Small Business Web Awards. The author of Web Site Marketing Makeover and 10 other books, she performs web site reviews, web site makeovers and creates marketing-smart web sites from scratch. See her sample home page makeover at http://www.yudkin.com/sample8b.htm .

Get A Free Google Friendly Website

By Raymond Noud

Squidoo is a free website service. They provide you with a tag based webpage that you can use for just about whatever you choose. It can be a list of your grandmothers cooking recipes, a family tree website, a collection of pictures of your house pets or whatever you want. You just cannot post porn or hate related stuff of course.

The site is set up is such that many different areas of the squidoo site link back to your page via tags and other group links ect. The overall sitewide pagerank on squidoo actually helps each individual site's pagerank improve if the site content is kept fresh by it's owner. This creates good backlinks immediately upon publishing your first page or as they call it: a Lens. Squidoo pages are used for virtually anything. Some Squidoo pages are used for business opportunities and some are used to list grama's favorite recipes and anything in between.

Squidoo also puts Adsense ads on all lenses sitewide and splits the proceeds with the lens owner that the click came from! And remember this website site is free!

Squidoo also has pre-made modules for Amazon Ebay and others that you can add to your site and you can make money from those sales as well.

The site allows HTML in all fields of the setup process. You can see your Squidoo lens in Google within two weeks without even submitting it to a single search engine! And my site showed up in Google the second day after I made it! I just followed the prompts, and put in what I wanted to say and it was not complicated at all.

The site administrators at squidoo work hard to ensure this is a friendly community for everyone. This is very important and I must say, they do it very well.

In my case I created a site to sell products but you can use this site for almost anything. Long story short, you just cant go wrong with a Squidoo page so get yours free today!
http://www.squidoo.com/raysgroup

About The Author:

Raymond Noud, network marketer, musician and Gutiar builder. I Also build websites. See mine here: http://www.makemoneyteam.com

4 Tips To a Better Looking Website

By Kaleb Brody

There are many conflicting theories about color and layout of a website, however I would like to list a few rules that will help you improve your website visitor experiences.

I have seen literally hundreds of landing pages and websites that have great sales copy, are promoting quality products, and have a lot of potential to be a great, but the page looks horrible. Today we are going to focus on the readability and layout of a website.

The purpose of a landing page or website is to get your visitors to read what you have to say. Whether you're selling products and services, or providing useful information, you need to be able to effectively communicate with your visitors for them to take the action you desire. That action could be clicking on a link, signing up for a newsletter, or purchasing a product. The size and color of your text play a huge part in communicating your message to your visitors. Having Black Text, on a white background is THE easiest form of text to read.

Using color schemes that clash, or cause the text to be difficult to read will many times cause your visitors to leave your page immediately. If you want to use a different color background or text color, make sure that readability is not negatively affected. Below are a few rules that will help you improve your website.

1. Do not use dark text with a dark background. Dark text on dark background makes it hard to distinguish text from the background color. Thus making your eyes have to focus harder.

2. Do not use text colors that clash with background color. White text on a black background has a "glowing" like affect that makes your text hard to read. Red on blue also creates a negative glowing affect.

3. Do not use large text for your main sales copy or body paragraphs. It is ok to use larger text for links and headlines, but the main text of your page should be Arial Size 2 (12pt). Arial Size 2 is the internet standard.

4. Do not waste the space at the top of the page with unnecessary graphics, flash, or banners that have no purpose. Simply listing the name of your website, or domain name is a very poor use of this prime real estate space. The first fold of your website is the most important space that you have because it is the section of the page that is visible as soon as your page loads. Do not take up this space with unnecessary graphics, flash, or banners. A Strong headline that states the benefit of your product or service is always better than a banner that has no purpose.

If you are struggling with site design or if its taking too much of your time, here's some tools that can greatly help you.

Site Rubix: Not free but well worth the investment. Cost less than most website builders. This website builder enables you to create professional looking websites within 5 minutes, all without any Html knowledge.

DreamWeaver: This software is allows you to build visually appealing websites without Html skills, but may take you awhile to get past the learning curve that the software presents. DreamWeaver is one of the more popular but expensive website builders.

Nvu: It's free, but will take you longer to make a website and generally the site will not look as professional.

Remember, your website serves a purpose, whatever that purpose is make sure your visitors can easily read and understand message. I hope the tips provided above assist you in creating a professional looking website that you can take pride in.

About The Author:

Caleb Caldwell is a full time Internet marketer and web designer. If you're interested in learning more about how you can quickly and easily build a professional website with no Html skills, the be sure you go to http://www.siterubixone.com for more info.

How To Build A Better Website Without Building A Website

By Richard D S Hill

The most important thing to think about, when first thinking about any website, is the user. Like so much marketing websites are, unfortunately, too often developed `inside out' (company focused) rather than `outside in' (customer focused).

All website users have their own reasons and objectives for visiting a site. No matter how targeted any website has to communicate with a wide range of individual users.

To be successful therefore, every site has to give each and every user a thorough but simple presentation of the site's content so that the site achieves your objectives e.g. registrations, leads, sales.

To do this successfully users want:

Simple navigation

Navigation that is clear and consistent.

Probably the worst issue is `lost visitors' - those who are in a maze and don't know where they are in the site.

The site should always allow users to easily return to the home page and preferably get to any page with one click.

Studies have shown that users want to find things fast and this means that they prefer menus with intuitive ranking and organizing and multiple choices to many layers of simplified menus. The menu links should be placed in a consistent position on every page.

Clarity

Users do not appreciate an over-designed site.

A website should be consistent and predictable. For maximum clarity, your site design should be built on a consistent pattern of modular units that all share the same basic layout, graphics etc.

Designing websites that meet their objectives

Everything above is pretty simple, but how do you ensure that you can achieve it?

The answer is website architecture - an approach to the design and content that brings together not just design and hosting but all aspects of function, design, technical solutions and, most importantly, usability.

The distinction may seem academic but imagine trying to publish a magazine using just graphic design and printing whilst ignoring content and editing. It just would not work yet that's what too many people still try to do.

Website architecture

Defining a website using web architecture requires:

- Site maps
- Flow charts
- Wireframes
- Storyboards
- Templates
- Style guide
- Prototypes

This planning saves you (the client) money. The better the site map, flow chart, wireframe, storyboard, templates, style guide and prototype the more time and money you save because it gives the designer who has to do the graphics and the developer who has to do the programming a blueprint.

We are constantly amazed that people who wouldn't think about building a house, car, ship or whatever will still build a website without an architectural plan.

The benefits include:

- Meeting business goals
- Improved usability
- Reducing unnecessary features
- Faster delivery

Site maps

Many people are familiar with site maps on web sites which are generally a cluster of links.

An architectural site map is more of a visual model (blueprint) of the pages of a web site.

The representation helps everyone to understand what the site is about and the links required as well as the different page templates that will be needed.

Flow charts

A flowchart is another pictorial or visual representation to help visualize the content and find flaws in the process from say merchandize selection to final payment.

It's a pictorial summary that shows with symbols and words the steps, sequence, and relationship of the various operations involved and how they are linked so that the flow of visitors and information through the site is optimized.

Wireframes

Wireframes take their name from the skeletal wire structures that underlie a sculpture. Without this foundation, there is no support for the fleshing-out that creates the finished piece.

Wireframes are a basic visual guide to suggest the layout and placement of fundamental design elements on any page. A wireframe shows every click through possibility on your site. It's a "text only" model to allow for the development of variations before any expensive graphic design and programming but one that also helps to maintain design consistency throughout the site.

Creating wireframes allows everyone at the client and developer to see the site and whether it's `right' or needs changes without expensive programming. The goal of a wireframe is to ensure your visitors' needs will be met in the website. If you meet their needs you will meet your objectives.

To create a wireframe requires dialogue. You and your developers talk to translate your business successfully into a website. Nobody knows your business better than you and your
developers should listen to ensure the resulting wireframe accurately represents business. You, however, must answer the questions; questions such as:

- What does a visitor do at this point?
- Where can a visitor go from here?

and ignore questions about what your visitor sees at this point. Sounds easy, but!

Storyboards

Storyboards were first used by Walt Disney to produce cartoons. A storyboard is a "comic" produced to help everyone visualize the scenes and find potential problems before they occur. When creating a film a storyboard provides a visual layout of events as they are to be seen through the camera. In the case of a website, it is the layout and sequence in which the user or viewer sees the content or information.

However, the wireframe provides the outline for your storyboard. Developers and designers don't need to work in a vacuum - the wireframe guides every design, information architecture, navigation, usability and content consideration. Wireframes define "what is there" while the storyboards define "how it looks".

Templates and style guide

Templates are standard layouts containing basic details of a page type that separates the business (follow the $) logic from the presentation (graphics etc) logic so that there can be maximum flexibility in presentation while disrupting the underlying business infrastructure as little as possible.

Style guides document the design requirements for a site. They define font classes and other design conventions (line spacing, font sizes, underlining, bullet types etc.) to be followed in the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) used to provide a library of styles that are used in the various page types in a web site.

Prototypes

A prototype is working model that is not yet finished. It demonstrates the major technical, design, and content features of the site.

A prototype does not have the same testing and documentation as the final product, but allows client and developers to make sure, once again, that the final product works in the way that is wanted and meets the business objectives.

Now you have built your virtual site it's a lot quicker, easier and cheaper to build the real one.

About The Author:

Richard Hill is a director of E-CRM Solutions and has spent many years in senior direct and interactive marketing roles. E-CRM provides EBusiness, ECommerce and Emarketing and ECRM. http://www.e-crm.co.uk/profile/message170807.html

A Beginner's Guide To the Online Shopping Cart

By Lena Crossan

Want to launch a successful ecommerce business? Having an easy-to-use, reliable shopping cart is a necessity. But what many first-time business owners don't understand is that a shopping cart is only one part of the process. In order to upload a working site that makes money, you'll need a shopping cart and much more! Don't panic. I'll gladly take you through what's required to create a basic ecommerce site.

What Is An Online Shopping Cart?

The term "online shopping cart" is mistakenly used when referring to the entire process visitors go through when reading product descriptions, adding an item to their virtual baskets, checking out and paying for their orders. That is only partially correct.

The shopping cart comes into play when a site visitor chooses to add an item to their basket. According to Wikipedia.com, "The software allows online shopping customers to place items in the cart. Upon checkout, the software typically calculates a total for the order, including shipping and handling charges and the associated taxes, as applicable." That's it.

Until your visitors add an item to their carts, and after they initiate payment, the shopping cart isn't involved. Those functions take additional types of software and accounts. Let me explain.

In the Beginning.

When a visitor types in your URL (also called a domain name or web address), he/she can view your website. The website is what delivers your pictures and product descriptions. It includes the design and any necessary programming to make the basic site function. Perhaps the site uses a content management system (CMS) to serve up your products in a logical way or it may
simply use basic HTML. Either way, once the site design is completed, you are now able to show your products to the world. But that's all. At this point, they can't buy anything. This is where the online shopping cart enters the game.

The shopping cart provides visitors with the ability to create a list of items they want to buy. It stores the items as the shopper continues to browse through your site. The shopping cart can calculate totals, show listings of what's currently saved in the cart and more. When a visitor has finished shopping, two other components come into play: a merchant account and a payment gateway.

Show Me the Money!

In order for a visitor to pay for their items, your site must be equipped with the ability to accept credit cards and the ability to process those cards via the Internet. This requires a merchant account as well as an online payment gateway.

A merchant account is provided by a bank or other institution. It allows you to accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express and other credit cards as payment for purchases your visitors make. Generally, if you were a brick-and-mortar store, this would be all you needed. However, for ecommerce sites, you must have a way to instantaneously process the cards in real time via the Internet. That requires a payment gateway. Once you have all four elements in play (a website, an online shopping cart, a merchant account and a payment gateway) you can launch your ecommerce site and sell products or services.

Sound complicated? Not really. Because the functions work hand-in-hand, you can find companies that offer complete packages containing all four elements. That makes it simple for you to quickly upload your pictures and content and start receiving orders right away.

The Internet can be an exciting place to earn a living. Before jumping onto the ecommerce playing field, however, do your research. You'll want to find a reputable company to provide these all-important services. If possible, find one organization that offers all the services. Look for a business that has a proven track record of dependability and outstanding support before making your decision.

About the Author:

Lena Crossan is Marketing Manager of GoEmerchant.com that has offered affordable award-winning ecommerce services since 1995. Discover their proven, innovative online shopping cart and other solutions today at http://www.GoEmerchant.com.

Hiring A Web Designer

By George Meszaros

It is very important to find a web design company that understands your online strategy. The company you hire must be dedicated to your business needs. Finding a company that is committed to your success can be challenging. Don't ever hire the first company you interview. Even if you fall in love with the person you speak with you should evaluate other companies. Don't make a decision until you have interviewed at least three design companies.

The company you choose has to appreciate your needs and not the other way around. You hire the web designer to help you create a website that helps you succeed online. The design is not about serving their ego. Their artistic ambitions are only of interest as long as they serve your needs. Don't agree to any technology unless they can prove how it will help you sell more, create more customers, educate your visitors, generate more leads, etc.

Make sure that the company understands your goals. It also helps if they understand your business. When you interview Web design companies ask to see if they know anything about your industry. Find out if they understand the trends in your market. Of course, they don't have to be experts in your area, but it helps if they have a basic understanding of your business.

If you have a service business you are going to have very different needs than if you were an online retailer with 500 products. Web sites for service businesses are usually very rich in content. For example, an accountant's web site may include a large number of articles about accounting advice or tax strategies. A website created for e-commerce is going to be focused on selling products. Such a site is going to be equipped with a shopping cart, a database driven backend solution, online chat, etc.

The functionalities you desire for your website is going to have the greatest impact on expense. A three-page web site that serves as an online business card is going to cost much less than a fully functional e-commerce site. A complex e-commerce site is going to cost significantly more because of the technology required.

About The Author:

Author: George Meszaros with Webene http://www.webene.com

Using Credit Cards And E-commerce On Your Web Site

By Peter Kenny

If you have a web site that you use for business, then you should think about setting up your site to allow people to pay for things using a credit card. If you can get your head around using credit cards and e-commerce on your web site, then you will attract more customers and make your business run more smoothly. Here are some tips on how and why you should use credit cards on your web site.

How to do it?

There are a variety of ways to set up credit card payments on your account. Merchants to use for this include Paypal and CCBill, although there are dozens of firms to choose from. Usually it involves setting up an account and then pasting the correct code provided into your web page. Then customers will be able to click on the button on your web site and send you money using their credit cards.

Good for impulse buyers

One reason why you should accept credit cards on your web site is that it suits the needs of impulse buyers. Someone might visit your site and see something they like, but if they have to contact you or use a lengthy payment method, they might be put off making a purchase. Impulse buyers like to be able to purchase things quickly, and accepting credit card payments allows them to do this.

Making your business international

If you only accept payments by cheque or money order, you might be limiting the customers that you can appeal to. If you allow payment by credit cards then you will make your business more international, because people because people will be able to pay using a credit card from whichever country they reside in. It will also speed up the process of payment, and increase the number of customers that you have around the world.

Methods of accepting credit cards

As previously mentioned, you can accept credit cards on your web site by using a third party merchant who will accept the credit card payment on your behalf. However, you can also accept credit card payments by opening your own merchant account at a bank or financial institution.

Which method to use?

The easiest and quickest method to use is generally a third party merchant, as they can be set up in a few minutes and have very little or no signup costs. However, third party merchants charge much higher transaction fees than if you set up your own merchant account with a bank. If you are dealing with large amounts of money over a prolonged period, it might be cheaper to open your own merchant account. However, if you are dealing with relatively few sales a third party merchant is a good option. Whichever method you choose, it really does pay to employ e-commerce on your web site and accept credit card payments.

About The Author:

Peter Kenny is a writer for The Thrifty Scot, please visit us at
http://www.loansubmit.co.uk/debt-consolidation-loan/ and
http://www.thriftyscot.co.uk/money/what-is-an-iva.html

Avoid Being A Dot-bomb

By Mark Walters

There is very little difference between a dot com success and a dot-bomb is a mixture of several elements taught in grade 9 business courses. Most of the reasons e-commerce businesses fail are amazingly obvious, and commonly overlooked. Of course, hindsight is 20/20.

The first step, and the defining factor for many businesses is, how do we define "e-commerce success"?

There are some common answers:

- The website needs to make a profit

- The business needs to meet the owner's income - passive income - goals

- Who will pay for the product or service?

- Why didn't the visitor buy the product or service from another website?

The last two factors are vital to any e-commerce business success. Not everyone who visits a website want to buy the product. However, thousands of people who never find the website want to buy the product. The key is to find out how those people search the web, what forums they participate in, what newsletters they belong to, where they have their 'private space', and how can you meet their needs.

Customer Service

The #1 reason why e-commerce businesses fail is because the business owner believes that customer service is not important in an ecommerce business. Nothing is farther from the truth. Online customers have a choice. They can buy a product from the guy in their forum or who visits their myspace site, or they can buy from a perfect stranger who cannot be contacted.

Customer service in the www world is built on communication. Free chats, answering questions in forums, holding workshops, free information in blogs, newsletters, and even teleconferences are just some of the ways that people come in contact with the web owner.

There is an unwritten rule that 'there are no returns on the net.' That is why communication is so important. Most e-commerce businesses are not about the product, the information, the or the service. It is about the relationship between the business owner and the customer.

That is why sites like www.myspace.com, www.youtube.com ,

www.communati.com and other large communities are so successful.

Image

Image is part of the customer service. The image shouldn't be condescending or 'I have it all and you need to buy it.' Instead, it should be 'I figured this out and I'll share my information with you.'

The design of the website must look and function with a professional edge. That is why many ecommerce sites are building their sites on mambo.com or Joomla.com platforms, using professional templates. There are other Content Management Systems that help web owners manage their content, forums, blogs, and chat rooms, but these two are the most popular, and easiest for beginners to use.

Target Audience

Most Dot Com utilised the latest technology, built the best websites, and forgot to tell their target audience how to use the site. All sites should have several navigation paths that let users find their way around.

They should also include a FAQ with basic and advanced questions. A full time business could also employ a live chat, or a video tutorial that will help users learn how to use the site. Always include a site map that has direct links to important pages in the site.

The next element should be 'instant' samples. This doesn't need to be a part of the product, but it can be power point presentations. In fact, one strong sale's tool is a MS movie maker slide show of the content in an article, or a power point presentation. This gives extra 'value.' Also, the audio features make it possible to add streaming audio/podcasts to the website adding extra value for the visitor.

However, don't use features that some people do not share. A blatant example of web features that limit users is Javascript and Macromedia Flash. It is also important to make sure the website works in both IE and Firefox. Most of the people in the world do not use Internet Explorer, but instead use Fire Fox.

Payment Gateway

The next factor that needs to be addressed is the payment gateway. Most people are afraid of entering their credit card information into a website. That is why www.paypal.com and
ebay stores are so popular. The webmaster can assure their clients that their information is secure and their money protected.

This is another way that an ecommerce business can put their customer's needs first, and improve customer service, while improving their chances of success.

Customer Power

Ignoring the customer is the number one way to loose future sales. Customers are one of the most powerful marketing tools. Customers tag good websites on technorati and digg. They talk about them in their blogs. They suggest favorite websites and services while chatting with their friends. A happy customer will spread the word ten times faster, and farther, than a $10 000 Pay Per Click campaign.

Learn how to master the skill of web-based customer service. Learn how to make your customers think that your only reason for running a business is to solve their problems. Last, learn to become part of the web community, and you'll protect your business from becoming another dot-bomb.

About The Author:

Mark Walters is a third generation entrepreneur and author. He offers free training and investing videos designed to speed you towards financial independence at
http://www.cashflowinstitute.com/videosignup.htm

25 + Common Website Design Mistakes To Avoid

By Debbie Ray

I'm sure you've seen examples of great websites on the internet - and also examples of really "Bad" websites. First impressions are extremely important - you have about 20 seconds to make that first impression a good one. If you want your visitor to come back you've got to do a lot to impress them in an extremely short period of time.

Many individuals or small business owners often opt to design and build their own websites. Without proper experience or website design background many mistakes are made. If you are a beginner then there are several things you should keep in mind to avoid before designing your website.

Here are several common mistakes which should be avoided when designing your new website.

1. Slow Loading Pages

Problem: Have you ever gone to a website and waited and waited for it to load?

Solution: Optimize your images at a lower resolution to achieve faster loading pages. Keep your page sizes well under 60 KB.

2. Page Layout

Problem: Websites that have the navigation in different places throughout the site. It looks cluttered and unprofessional.

Solution: Be consistent and be organized in your websites layout. Make sure all your web pages look the same and the websites navigation is in the same location on each page.

3. Wild and Crazy Color Schemes

Problem: Have you ever visited a website that has a background with a bright, neon color and can't read the content because the colors are so loud? What's the point?

Solution: Think "easy to read." Avoid dark backgrounds with light colored fonts. White background with black text is best for the general public.

4. Spelling and Grammar Errors

Problem: Spelling and grammar errors just jump off the page.

Solution: Always spell check.

5. Text on the Page

Problem: Most internet users don't read web pages - they scan them.

Solution: Make sure your page is easy to read. Break text into manageable pieces, use sub headings, short paragraphs, highlighted keywords and bullet points.

6. Font Styles and Sizes

Problem: Serif fonts such as Times New Roman are more difficult to read on a computer monitor. Also, text that is too small or way too big are hard to read.

Solution: Use non-serif fonts such as Arial, Verdana or MS Sans Serif for web pages that will be read online. Your page will look much better, more professional, and will be much easier for your visitor to read.

7. Not Enough "White Space"

Problem: Too many words on a web page can be overwhelming.

Solution: Make your page easy to read by breaking the text into smaller, more manageable pieces. Also, use sub-headings and bullet points.

8. Cheesy Music that the User Cannot Control

Problem: Background music on a site that does not fit. Next, not being able to shut it off.

Solution: If you think you need to use music on your website for some reason, then make sure you offer your visitors the option to turn it off, or on, quickly and easily.

9. Poor Layout and Design

Problem: Have you ever been to a website that is simply just "too much"? It's like they are trying to fill every available pixel of space on the entire page.

Solution: Don't overdo it when designing your pages. Just because you can add something doesn't mean you have to. Leave plenty of white space between your text and images.

10. Overly Long Pages

Problem: Ever been to a website with a page that just scrolls down forever?

Solution: Most people will never scan down to the bottom of really long pages. It's better to have several short pages vs. a few really long pages.

11. Non-Standard Links

Problem: You go to a website and aren't sure which words are really links because the link colors have been changed.

Solution: Don't confuse your users. Keep the link colors as they are.

12. Under Construction signs

Problem: Have you ever been to a website and found a page with no content of any type but a big "Under Construction" sign instead?

Solution: Don't use "Under Construction" signs on your website.

13. Didn't Test Your Web Site

Problem: Ever been to a website that just looks like a mess? Maybe you saw text overlapping images, weird alignment, etc.

Solution: Always check to see what your site looks like in multiple browsers and change accordingly before uploading your site to the web.

14. Unclear Navigation

Problem: You don't enjoy broken links, error pages or too many moving objects - neither do your websites visitors. If navigation is too difficult to follow, visitors won't return.

Solution: Make sure that your navigation is easy to read, find and to follow. Also, make sure that it is in the same spot on all of your websites pages.

15. Sloppy Web Site Copy

Problem: Have you ever visited a website with missing words, bad grammar, or it just didn't make sense?

Solution: Always remember, "Content is King" on the internet, so make sure there is plenty of good, focused information for your visitors.

16. Never Updating Your Site

Problem: Ever go to a website that hasn't been changed at all over the last few times that you've visited it?

Solution: You should always update the content on your site frequently.

17. Too Many Clicks

Problem: Have you ever gone to a website, found something you're interested in checking out, and then had to click, click, click before you found the item you were looking for (if you didn't give up first)?

Solution: Don't test the patience of your visitors. Make sure that everything can be found on your site within 3 clicks or less.

18. No Privacy Policy

Problem: No Privacy Policy page is listed on a website.

Solution: Post a Privacy Policy on your website. Make sure that your customers know that you will not share their addresses with anyone.

19. No Company Contact Information

Problem: A company with no address or contact information is not one you necessarily want to give your money to.

Solution: Email addresses or phone numbers are most often seen as contact information on websites, however, having a physical mailing address on your web site adds another key credibility factor.

20. Using Free Web Hosting

Problem: You visit a web page that has a name so long you'll never remember it because it is from one of those free website hosts.

Solution: If you want your internet business to be taken seriously avoid using free web hosting. This all adds to the issue of credibility.

21. Using Free E-mail Addresses

Problem: You visit a website and try to send an email to them, however the email addresses are not associated with the domain name.

Solution: Using a free email address, such as Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail, is never appropriate for your website. On your website, always use an email addresses associated with your own business domain name.

22. Advertisements

Problem: You've come to a website where the pages are cluttered with a lot of different advertisements.

Solution: A lot of people are using advertisements to earn extra money. That's fine, just don't overdo it.

23. Bad Images

Problem: How many times have you seen a web page with missing graphics files or misshaped images?

Solution: Always optimize your images and use the height and width attributes of the image tag. Additionally, save the files in the right image formats: JPG for Photographs and GIF for artwork.

24. This Website Best Viewed on .....

Problem: This is often seen on many beginner websites.

Solution: Simply don't use this on your website.

25. No Prices

Problem: Websites that don't have product prices listed clearly.

Solution: If you're selling a product on your website, ALWAYS include a price with the item description.

And here's a list of things that you should just avoid, or should not forget, simply because it's the right thing to do, website design-wise. And here they are:

Frames, Hit counters, Orphan pages, Anything "Cutesy", Pop ups, Fancy Fonts, Don't overuse Flash, Avoid Javascript links, Blinking text , Animated GIFs, Missing Meta Tags, Horizontal (sideways) Scrolling, Don't underline or color normal text, Don't forget functional links on your footer, Don't forget about your Marketing Strategies, Don't forget to include anchor text on your links, Never subscribe a visitor for anything without his consent, Don't leave the home page title as "Welcome to Mysite.com", Avoid using all the "Bells And Whistles" simply because you can, Not Taking Advantage of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on your website.

Whether you have created your own website or are working with someone else on creating your website, I hope all these ideas above will help you build a better website that steadily attracts visitors. If you've never built a website on your own, I hope the tips above help you design the best site that you can and help you to avoid all these issues in the future. Knowledge is critical.

About the Author:

Debbie Ray, owner of http://www.pedigreedpups.com, http://www.the-website-doctor.com, http://www.pedigreeddogs.com and http://www.total-german-shepherd.com is a lifelong animal lover, dog enthusiast and internet business owner. Want to learn how to build a website? Interested in more dog information? Thinking about getting a purebred dog? Interested in the German Shepherd? Promote your dog related website? Check my sites out for more info.

Web Design A Website For All

By Scott Lindsay

How many customers are you losing every day in your ecommerce website? I suppose every business owner expects some customer loss, but did you know you could be losing more customers than you may have realized?

Tim Berners-Lee is credited with creating the Worldwide Web and he always envisioned an online experience that would be useable to all online visitors. This vision included individuals with a variety of handicaps.

While there are web applications that allow vision and hearing impaired visitors to use websites, many site designers do very little to help these individuals navigate their website.

Interestingly one of the key factors that minimize effective use of an ecommerce website design is an over produced website with multi navigational tabs. A growing number of baby boomers and senior citizens are using the web and the use of a site that is difficult to navigate makes the site essentially `off limits' to these potential customers who often leave in frustration.

Consider these financial facts from the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey.

* The 50 and older have $2.4 trillion in annual income, which accounts for 42% of all after-tax income.

* Adults 50 and older account for an estimated $1 trillion+ in total expenditures in 2005.

* Consumers 50 and older own 65% of the net worth of all U.S. households.

The demographic for those over the age of fifty find a consumer base with the most disposable income, increased buying power and this demographic often provides an increased level of brand loyalty.

Interestingly television networks have essentially turned their back on this demographic by providing program geared to viewers 35 and younger.

It is possible that web design could benefit by remembering a demographic who may have an interest in purchasing products or services from your website as long as you make sure to provide a means of accessing the website in a way that is attractive yet easily accessible.

Many websites rely on flash design. In a scenario in which you are seeking the age 50+ consumers you may want any flash you provide to be instructional on the use of the site. However, you may be better served by using straightforward text and graphics and by simplifying the steps your customers must use to make a purchase.

"In most [web design] projects, accessibility has fairly low priority because project managers underestimate the number of people who are impacted by design problems." Jakob Neilson

If you can make your web design appealing and easily accessible you will find all your customers being able to maximize the pleasure of the visit and may likely develop into repeat customers.

About The Author:

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites at: http://www.highpowersites.com. Start your own ebook business with BooksWealth at: http://www.bookswealth.com

How To Make Money Through Your Ecommerce Website

By Wisam Abdulaziz

If you are in the process of setting up an eCommerce website, or of you are interested in increasing the revenue and profits from your eCommerce website, there are some suggestions that you need to keep in mind. There are some helpful tips that will show you how to make money through your eCommerce website both in the short and the long term. This article is designed to provide you with an important overview of tips and pointers that will show you how to make money through your eCommerce website.

Of course, at the heart of understanding how to make money through your eCommerce website is the need for traffic. You absolutely must have high traffic to your eCommerce website if you expect to generate revenue and profit from that venue.

Competition on the Net today is fierce. Therefore, when it comes to learning how to make money through your eCommerce website you need to employ all of the various effective techniques that have been demonstrated successful at increasing traffic to eCommerce website venues. Chief amongst these techniques and practices is search engine optimization or SEO.

In order to master the ability to understand how to make money through your eCommerce website you will want to make sure that the design and development of your eCommerce website results in a venue that is attractive. Consumers from all walks of life naturally are drawn to stores in the brick and mortar world that are nicely decorated and appointed. Similarly, consumers in cyberspace are drawn to those websites that are professional in their appearance, that are - in a couple of words - "nice looking."

Another simple and yet vitally important factor that you need to keep in mind when it comes to how to make money through your eCommerce website is ensure that your eCommerce website completely is user friendly. While it is all well and good to draw traffic to your website, if a potential customer or client finds your website difficult to use, other websites are only a mouse click away.

Yet another factor that you must keep at the top of the list when it comes to how to make money through your eCommerce website is to provide excellent customer service. More business is lost due to less than adequate customer service (as well as technical support as applicable) than anything else when it comes to eCommerce website operations.

About The Author:

http://www.searchfreearticles.com/ and http://www.searchengineoptimizationtoronto.com/

Your Ecommerce Website - How To Gain The Trust Of Prospective Customers

By Wisam Abdulaziz

If you've an eCommerce website you understand perfectly the need to generate a reliable stream of traffic to your venue. Reliable and steady traffic means reliable and steady profits. Of course, there are many factors that come into play when you are dealing with developing and then maintaining a strong traffic flow to your website. Chief amongst these considerations is gaining the trust of prospective customers or clients when it comes to your eCommerce website. Through this article, you will be provided with an overview of tactics and strategies that you can employ when it comes to gaining the trust of prospective customers or clients for your eCommerce website.

Develop and Design an Appealing Site

One of the most important steps that you will need to take in order to gain the trust of prospective customers or clients is to ensure that your eCommerce website is attractive. Consumers naturally are more inclined to put their trust in an eCommerce website that is professional in its appearance. Business is lost each and every day in cyberspace due to the unprofessional appearance of some eCommerce website venues.

Testimonials can be Useful and Helpful

Another method that you can employ to instill confidence and to gain the trust of prospective customers or clients is the inclusion of testimonials from satisfied customers or clients at your eCommerce website. History oftentimes is the best indication of future performance. Therefore, by including testimonials from satisfied customers or clients at your eCommerce website, you will be taking an important and meaningful step in gaining the confidence of prospective customers or clients.

List Affiliations at Your Website

If you are part of any association or organization, you should include those affiliations at your website. For example, if your business is part of a Chamber of Commerce or some sort of recognized Internet organization or association, you would be well served by listing this information at your eCommerce website.

"Contact Us" - Make Sure They Really Can .

Everywhere eCommerce website has a "contact us" section or link at the site. However, it is surprising how often these "contact us" devices, links or pages do not function correctly. You need to make certain that any mechanism that you are using to allow for contact between a prospective customer or client and your eCommerce website actually works. You need to make sure that the "contact us" mechanism is user friendly - that a consumer does not have to jump through a bunch of hoops to connect with you. Finally, you need to make certain that when a prospective customer or client makes contact with you that you respond in a timely manner. This will help to foster a sense of trust between a prospective customer or client and your eCommerce website.

About The Author:

http://www.dirinc.net/ and "http://www.torontourl.com/

Comparing Shopping Cart Software

By Wisam Abdulaziz

If you are in the process of starting a new online retail business one of the more important decisions that you will make pertains to the type of shopping cart program that you end up purchasing. Absent a "good" shopping cart program, your online retail business will not function up to par and will not be as profitable as it might otherwise have the potential to be in the presence of a more effective shopping cart software application. Through this informative article, you will be provided with the tips and pointers that you will need in order to select and implement the shopping cart software program that will best and most appropriately meet the ongoing needs of your important online retail business enterprise.

As an initial step when it comes to comparing shopping cart software, there are some independent websites in operation today that provide in depth evaluations of different types of shopping cart software programs that are available and on the market today. By taking the time to review and consider the information and analysis that is available at these websites, you will be able to garner useful and necessary information that will aid you in determining which shopping cart software program will best meet your needs. Truly, these independent evaluations will be invaluable as you weigh and balance the pros and cons of different shopping cart software programs that are available on the market today.

Don't rule out word of mouth. In this high tech age, many an Internet business owner overlooks the obvious. Take the time to discuss shopping cart software with the owners and operators of similarly situated Net based business enterprises. There is no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to selecting a shopping cart software application for your Internet business. If a particular kind of shopping cart software program has proven effective for a Net based business that is similar to your own the odds are great that the program will work well in your own set of circumstances.

When comparing shopping cart software it can be easy to "overkill" - to purchase a more expensive product than you really need. What you really need to focus on is finding a shopping cart software program that will grow with your business. In other words, you can make a more modest invest in the shopping cart software program today and then upgrade the program as your changing business needs demand into the future.

About The Author:

http://www.do-dir.com/ and http://www.torontowordcloud.com/

Your Goals In Web Design - Is The Key Looks Or Usability... Or Both?

By Wisam Abdulaziz

If you are in the process of drawing up plans for the design and development of your business website, or even for a personal website, you may be wondering whether or not the goal in regard to website design and development should be looks or usability. In many ways, this has been the great debate when it has come to website design and development: Looks versus design.

In reality, when it comes to the great debate of looks and usability when it comes to website design and development, both elements are of vital importance. If you want to create, design and development the most ideal website venue, you will want to keep both looks and usability in mind. Your final goal when it comes to website design and development has got to be both the looks of the website and the usability of the website.

Through the years, many people have tried to make the argument that you cannot judge a book by its cover. In so many ways, this is the babbling of a person who is the author of a book with a poorly designed cover. In fact, the cover of a book is very important - and reputable publisher would tell you that this is the case. The same holds true for the look of a website. A person surfing the Net naturally will stop and pay closer attention to a website that looks nice, that is attractive and designed in a pleasing manner. Therefore, when it comes to your own website design and development goals and plans, you must keep the element of the looks of the website in mind.

Once you've got the attention of a prospective customer or client by designing and developing a nice looking website, you've got to keep them at the site. If you create a website that is difficult to utilize - that is not user friendly - the potential customer or client will bounce off somewhere else in no time at all. You will lose a client or customer because you website is not usable. Therefore, it is imperative that when it comes to your website design and development that you make very, very certain that the final product is completely user friendly.

By following the suggestions outlined for you in this article you will be well on your way to designing and developing a website that is not only attractive but also user friendly. You will end up creating a website for your Internet business that ends up generating revenue and profits for you.

About The Author:

http://www.my-dir.net/ and http://www.buydir.net/

Does Your Web Site Need a Workout?

By Kalena Jordan

Here's an analogy for you. Yesterday, I was working my butt off in the gym on the cardio machines, panting wildly with sweat dripping off me and my face as red as a beet. Not the most attractive sight, but I figure, you're at the gym to work out right? I might as well "go hard" or "go home", as they say.

As I looked around me, I could see all these people simply going through the motions. There they were, minus perspiration in their shiny new lycra and expensive gym shoes, casually walking on the treadmill or lazily turning the wheels on a bike while reading a book or glued to the TV screens in front of them. Only a few seemed to be there for the actual purpose of working out. The rest seemed to be there to check out the talent or to simply keep up the appearance of fitness, while doing the bare minimum.

Huh? I don't get it. Why have these gym bimbos paid so much money for a gym membership and all the related gear if they aren't going to take full advantage of their investment?

Then it struck me - these gymbos were just like those companies who spend thousands of dollars on a shiny new website with all the bells and whistles like graphic design, blogs, shopping carts, web analytics, the lot and then fail to take advantage of it. I see it so often, regardless of company size. Web sites that could easily be bringing in loads of traffic and revenue simply wasting away because nobody can be bothered tracking visitor activity, analyzing trends or checking for search engine compatibility and usability.

These companies are simply keeping up appearances, investing heavily in Internet technology because their competitors are doing the same. But no thought has gone into the search engine compatibility of the site, how usable it is for visitors or whether it meets accessibility guidelines. They don't look at their site statistics, they don't check for broken links and they sure as heck don't investigate why their sites aren't converting traffic into customers. What a waste!

Is your web site working hard enough for you? Run it through the following 20 point fitness assessment to find out:

• Is your site fully search engine compatible? Are all your pages being indexed by the major search engines?
  
  
• Do you track your visitor statistics on a regular basis? Do you use the information provided by your visitor statistics to improve your site?
  
  
• Is your web site accessible to visually-impaired visitors? Does it meet the international standards set down by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)?
  
  
• Do you know which sites and search engines provide you with the most traffic? Do you use this information to increase your traffic further?
  
  
• Do you track the source of all reported errors in your site statistics and fix them promptly?
  
  
• Do you know which keywords your site was found for in the search engines? Have you conducted keyword research to determine what search terms your target markets are looking for so you can optimize for them?
  
  
• Does your web site HTML code validate to W3 standards? Do you check for validation regularly?
  
  
• Does your site contain zero broken links? Do you check for and fix broken links regularly?
  
  
• Has your site been fully search engine optimized to integrate your target search terms into your Page Titles, META Tags and visible page text?
  
  
• Have you created and submitted an XML sitemap to Google Sitemaps?
  
  
• Have you created and submitted a sitemap to Yahoo Site Explorer?
  
  
• Have you checked to see if your site meets Google's Webmaster Guidelines?
  
  
• Do you measure your visitor sign-ups and conversions on a regular basis? Do you tweak your landing page copy to increase the conversion rates?
  
  
• Is your site navigation intuitive and are your visitors following the navigation paths you intended?
  
  
• Do you encourage feedback from your site visitors and provide an obvious way for them to provide such feedback?
  
  
• Are there at least 250 words of text on your home page to satisfy search engines?
  
  
• Does your site contain a visible, text-based site map to aid user navigation?
  
  
• Do you have an ongoing link building campaign running to secure more incoming links to your site and improve your site's link popularity score?
  
  
• Does your site have a high percentage of repeat visitors? Are the majority of your visitors staying on your site for more than a minute?
  
  
• Do your search engine referrals and site traffic figures grow each month?

Unless you can answer yes to all the questions in the above checklist, your web site is not working hard enough for you and needs a workout. Get to it!

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About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.

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3 Steps to a Search Engine Compatible Site

By Kalena Jordan

Is your web site search engine compatible? Despite all the misinformation out there, it's very easy to design a web site that search engines will love. All you need to do is follow 3 simple steps:

1) Obey the Search Engine Guidelines

Nearly all search engines publish their own guidelines regarding the submission of sites, the type of sites they will accept and recommendations for optimized content. Google recently updated their Webmaster Guidelines which cover the most common forms of deceptive or manipulative search engine behavior that they consider to be 'spam'. They also published SEO Guidelines – advice for webmasters to heed when choosing an SEO. Google was the first search engine to publicly acknowledge search engine optimizers in this fashion.

It's not just Google publishing anti-spam guidelines. You'll find them at the following search engine sites as well:

• Yahoo terms of service
• Yahoo guidelines on search engine spam (covering AltaVista and AllTheWeb as well)
• Yahoo definitions of search engine spam (covering AltaVista and AllTheWeb as well)
• Yahoo content guidelines
• MSN Search webmaster guidelines
• AltaVista terms of use (AltaVista is a Yahoo-owned company)
• Ask.com terms of service and spam policy
• Ask.com editorial guidelines

2) Don’t Use Spammy Search Engine Tactics

Often, webmasters will use search engine spam techniques without even being aware that they are doing so. Or worse, web designers can - advertently or inadvertently - integrate techniques that could cause a site to be penalized in the site's rankings in one or more engines, without the site owner's knowledge of such penalties. The key to avoiding spamming the engines is research.
Keep track of the various search engine guidelines via the links above. Watch for any changes they make to these guidelines and tweak your site accordingly. Trawl the various webmaster and search engine forums regularly to ensure your site doesn't use any of the latest optimization methods that appear to be penalized. If you suspect your site has been penalized, remove the offending content, contact the engine concerned and ask to be reinstated.

Google actually encourage you to file a re-inclusion request via their Help Center and this post by Google staffer Matt Cutts outlines what should be included.

Alternatively, here is a sample email template you can use instead:

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Sample Re-inclusion Request Email

Dear [search engine name],

I am the owner of [your site URL].

I did not realize that participation in [spammy method] and
[spammy SEO name] programs could cause problems for my website. I was
assured that these techniques were search-engine-friendly by [your source for using spammy method].

I now understand that the practices used are not acceptable. I apologize for having allowed them to be placed on my website. I've removed the questionable pages and links from the site. I promise not to repeat such mistakes.

I am asking you to please consider reinstating my website,
[your site URL] into the [search engine name] Index.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]
------------------------------------------

To assist them to provide a high quality service, search engines encourage people to report search results they are dissatisfied with. If you spot some content spam or techniques that are clearly in breach of the search engine's public guidelines, you can report it using these links:

• Google spam report or via search-quality@google.com
  
• AllTheWeb relevancy problem report (AllTheWeb is a Yahoo-owned company)
• AltaVista search results manipulation report (or via Yahoo's spam report)
• Yahoo spam report
• Ask.com spam report or via information@ask.com

3) Build Sites for Visitors Rather than Search Engines

The methodologies may have changed over the years, but the same principles have always applied to "good" or "white hat" SEO. Build sites for humans, not search engines. Make the site as user friendly as possible, avoid the bells and whistles and include high quality, relevant content.

Wherever possible, include text-based content and navigation menus with simple, descriptive, well-written copy designed to convert your visitors into customers. Include keywords and phrases your audience would logically type in to search engines to find sites like yours. Only link to sites that are relevant to your target audience and spend some time on usability, making sure all your forms and shopping carts work.

Remember that what pleases a visitor is almost always what pleases a search engine too.

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About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.

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Think Global Act Global: Writing for Your Online Market

By Kalena Jordan

When you write web site content and design your pages, do you truly act with your target audience in mind? Or do you think global and act local?

I am amazed at the number of web sites I see that claim to target a global market, yet design and write their content for a regionally-specific audience. Not sure what I mean? Take the site I saw yesterday, for example. I won't embarrass the site owners by pointing to the specific domain, but let's just say the site is based in the U.S. and sells high quality gold chains throughout North America, Europe and Australia.

Now the owner of this site was complaining loudly in a webmaster forum that his pay-per-click campaign was having no luck converting sales from overseas visitors, particularly in the UK and Australia. He had spent a long time developing and tweaking a landing page for the campaign and he couldn't work out why hardly anyone outside the U.S. was buying. I took a look at his landing page and could see the problems straight away:

1) He used the American English spelling "jewelry" throughout the page without considering that persons who use British English spell it "jewellery".

2) He provided a toll-free phone number for persons in the U.S. to call, but did not provide any contact phone number for persons located outside the U.S.

3) He used the word "national" throughout the page, immediately isolating anyone outside the U.S.

4) He promoted "free shipping throughout the U.S." but did not specify shipping costs for persons outside the U.S.


The owner of this site had not even considered that persons outside the U.S. might search for keywords in anything other than American English. It didn't even occur to him that there may be an alternative spelling of his main keyword and he didn't think about the logistics for purchasers outside his country. No wonder the page wasn't converting outside the U.S.! He had made the classic mistake of isolating a large chunk of his audience by sending everyone to a one-size-fits-some page.

What he should have done was to create a separate landing page using British English spelling and shipping/contact information applicable to persons overseas. He could then have set up a unique PPC campaign targeting only UK/Australian searchers with regional keywords and ads leading to the British English landing page.

I see similar problems occur quite often in the online travel industry where you not only have to deal with regional spelling options, but also regional jargon. Think about the word "accommodation". Apart from the fact the word is commonly misspelled, it is used most often in the UK, Australia and New Zealand to describe places to stay while traveling. In the U.S., the words "accommodations" and "lodging" are more commonly used. Same goes for "holiday" and "vacation", with the latter being more common in the U.S. The word "traveling" itself is spelled "travelling" in British English! So you can imagine the minefield of problems webmasters must face promoting their travel sites online to a worldwide audience.

I don't mean to single out a particular country, but Americans seem to find it especially difficult to step outside their regional mindset. I am always receiving emails from the U.S. with helpful suggestions for fixing my "spelling mistakes".

The funniest email exchange I ever had in relation to this was from an American web designer. She had seen our Australian-based web site (with a .com.au domain) and emailed me to tell me it was "full of errors" and that if I wanted to present a professional business to site visitors, I should correct them. So condescending! I asked her to elaborate and she pointed me to these words she felt were spelled incorrectly:

optimisation
counselling
organised
enrolment
colour
catalogue
favourite
centre

Resisting the urge to use a few offensive words I'm sure she would recognize, I tactfully explained that our site was only targeting the Australian market and that we use British English spelling in Australia. Her response? Perhaps if we wanted to be taken seriously by an international audience, we should consider using the "more proper" American English. Flabbergasted, I pointed out the fact that American English was a derivative of British English and was not widely used outside her own country. Wikipedia has more about the differences between the two here. And let’s not forget that although it is the most common language used on the web, English is used by less than 30 percent of the world’s total Internet users.

The point of this story is that you absolutely have to think outside your market if you are going to advertise on the web. As ignorant as she was, my email friend did make me realize that many of her compatriots might also think our site was full of errors. American English is more common on the web and I've since learned to cater to that trend. I try to remember that in all writing I do for the web now, whether it's in my daily blog, the syndicated articles I write regularly or web page content.

Whenever you design or write for a web site that has an international audience, make sure you address each market. It pays to undertake detailed keyword research into your markets you are targeting so you can capture the correct regional jargon and spelling that people are searching for. Remember it's not enough to think global, you've got to act global too.

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About the Author:

Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College - an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects.

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Quality Web Design And The Future Of Your Business

By WebGuru

When it comes to web design, quality must be the one constant, and that quality must be built into the design, not tacked on afterward as an afterthought.

The concept of web design is focused on building the front end of the web page, and with providing the visitors to that web page with a pleasurable and profitable online experience. How
this interface is designed can make a huge difference in the success or failure of any web based business, so it is essential to get the web design right the first time around.

Anyone who has even considered building a website has no doubt heard of HTML (hyper text markup language) and it is true that HTML is the language of the Internet. During the web design process, the web designer uses HTML to control how the web page will appear on the end user's web browser screen.

When designing a new web page, or when redesigning an old one, it is important for the designer to remember that although Internet Explorer still holds a commanding market share it is
no longer the only game in town. The remarkable popularity of alternative web browsers like Firefox and Opera mean that web designers must make sure that the pages they create load and operate as intended not only on Internet Explorer but on a number of alternative web browsers as well.

It is important as well for the web designer to make sure the web page operates properly, and looks great, on a number of different screen resolutions, monitor sizes and color depths. For instance, many new laptops use a widescreen format with a longer screen, and not all web pages have yet been redesigned to take advantage of this widescreen format. It is important therefore for all web designers to keep up with the ever changing technology to make sure their pages work properly no matter what the size of the screen, the color depth or the screen resolution.

All who work in the field of web design must also be familiar with the many tools and languages that are used in the field, including such popular names as ColdFusion, ASP, PHP, Macromedia Flash and more. As more and more ways to surf the web, from cell phones to portable video players, hit the market, it will become even more important for web designers to use the latest technology to build the best possible web sites for the end user.

After all, when it comes to surfing the web, it all boils down to the experience of the end user. If the user of the web site is not satisfied with his or her experience, they will not return, and no web based business can survive for very long without a steady stream of repeat customers.

About The Author:

For more information web design development , visit http://www.ocitservices.com SIMPLIFYING THE WEB

Ensure That Everyone Can Properly View Your Website

By Paul J Coulter

It is common mistake for novice web designers to create a website and only test the website at 1 screen resolution and in 1 web browser. The problem is, there are still some Internet users that use 15" monitors, or use a browser which is different from Internet Explorer. Thus, if you're not testing your website to ensure that it appears correctly at different screen resolutions and in different web browsers, you may be neglecting a small portion of your potential customers. Sure, maybe only 10% of your customers may not be able to view your
website as you've planned, but constructing a website that is accessible to everyone is so easy that it would be a huge mistake to neglect that 10%.

Screen Resolutions

Screen resolution refers to the number of pixels that span a particular space. If you are running 1024 x 768 resolution, 1024 pixels can fit horizontally across the page. When designing a website, it's not so much the number of vertical pixels that should concern you, but rather the number of horizontal pixels. You need to ensure that the user does not have to scroll to the right in order to view your whole web page. As a quick rule of thumb, I usually design my websites to
span 768 pixels across. Yes, that means that I would be neglecting those ancient computer users that use 600 x 480 resolution. But, by accommodating those users you would not be utilizing very much of the screen, and it wouldn't appeal to all your other users that make use of higher resolutions. Here are some statistics regarding screen resolutions for Internet users:

800 x 600: 14% of Internet Users

1024 X 768: 60% of Internet Users

1280 x 1024: 26% of Internet Users

Another idea, as opposed to using absolute definitions for the screen width, you could also employ relative screen width. The problem with optimizing your website to be 768 pixels wide is that your website may look empty to those viewers using 1280 x 1024 resolution. To do this, just create a table with its width set to 100%. Your web page should adjust automatically to the
user's screen width. Just remember not to add too much content in there or else the page will not adjust properly to users with lower resolutions.

Test Your Website

In order to ensure that your website will appear correctly you should view it using different screen resolutions on your own monitor. Here's how you can do this:

1) Right click on the desktop and click "Properties"
2) Click on the "Settings" tab
3) Move the slider through all the different resolutions and hit "OK"
4) Open up your website and see if there is any scrolling required

Ensure Browser Compatibility

If you're coding your website with an editor, you should be aware that there may be slight differences in the website's appearance depending on the brand of browser you are using. Over 70% of Internet users surf the web with Internet Explorer, but you should check to make sure your site looks consistent in Firefox, Netscape, and Opera. Also, if you have access to a Mac, it would be a good idea to work through the different resolutions, and then you'd have most all your bases covered.

Usability And Accessibility

Website accessibility refers to the ease of use for all types of Internet users, regardless of the type or age of equipment and software they are using. When you start to consider accessibility over a flashy appearance that may only please some surfers, you should increase visitor satisfaction and in turn, increase your bottom line. If you just assume that everyone has a massive monitor and running high resolutions, you could be shutting out a good number of your potential customers. It's just smart business.

About The Author:

Paul Coulter owns and operates a London Ontario Website Design Company. http://www.ekonline.com/

Internet Users Choose Speed And Readability Over Appearance: Web Poll

By Rick Sloboda

More than 93 per cent of Internet users indicated they favour speed and readability over appearance when visiting websites, according to a recent online poll conducted by Webcopyplus.

When Internet users were asked what's likely to drive them away from a website:

* 51.2 per cent indicated "slow load times"
* 42.2 per cent specified "weak web copy"
* 6.6 per cent noted "poor visual presentation"

A total of 258 users participated in the web writing service provider's online poll during a four-month period that ended in April of 2007.

The poll results clearly suggest functionality and clear messages top Internet users' desires and demands.

Speed

A total of 132 Internet users noted they are quick to hit the 'back button' when pages are slow to load, implying they expect websites to deliver information rapidly without exception.

The Web is fully capable of distributing communications at a staggering rate, but many web creators willfully hinder the technology. For the sake of visitors, you should optimize your images, streamline your HTML and stay away from self-serving Flash intros that provide little or no value.

While Flash is an effective tool for adding audio, video and animation to a website, it's simply overused.

Why make visitors wait as much as a minute just to watch a logo spin around? It's a blatant disregard for web users and their time. In fact, most Flash intros are likely not created with the
visitor and business in mind, but rather as an opportunity to showcase a programmer's abilities.

If someone wants to experiment or go for design awards, it shouldn't be done on the customer's dime.

Web writing

Web writing was deemed most important to 109 poll participants. Why? Well, if a site's web writing does not present the information needed by users, the website provides little or no value regardless of how fast it loads or how stunning it looks.

Provide online visitors web writing that is relevant, concise, scannable and objective. Stay away from marketing hype, which is one of the quickest ways to get labeled a 'spammer' and kill your credibility.

Design

The fact that only 17 poll participants placed weight on visual presentation doesn't mean designers hold a small role in the Web and its evolution.

Quite the contrary. Good designers and programmers recognize the fact that design is both function and aesthetics. It's not about decoration.

Good design is the tool and principle by which we craft and convey successful communications. Consequently, good design is what ultimately produces useful, convenient and simple websites.

At the end of the day, load time, web writing and design all have integral roles in promoting usability and positive online experiences.

Deliver on all three fonts and you'll experience more online traffic, happier customers and a healthier bottom line.

About the Author:

Rick Sloboda is a web writer at http://www.webcopyplus.com
Web writing services http://www.webcopyplus.com/services
More web writing information http://www.webcopyplus.com/articles

Third Party Credit Card Processors

By Debbie Dragon

If you're a small business or just starting out, you may not feel ready for a merchant account. Obtaining a merchant account is not usually considered difficult, however, for a newly established business it isn't always feasible to run out and a merchant account immediately. Starting a business is often costly and risky to begin with- you do not need to go out and spend money on optional features (like a merchant account) until you know whether or not your business is going to succeed, and whether or not you'll have the need to accept credit cards from customers.

Did you know there are other options and alternative methods for allowing your customers to pay you with credit cards? Companies called "third party credit card processors" do not require their customers to create merchant accounts, and yet they can be used to allow small or new businesses the ability to accept credit card payments from customers.

Why Worry about Accepting Credit Cards at All?

It's important that you are able to accept credit card payments from customers, however, even if you aren't feeling up to getting a traditional merchant account right now. It's been proven that businesses that except credit cards experience higher sales than those that do not accept credit cards. In fact, some companies have reported an increase of 50 to 400% in sales once they began accepting credit cards as a payment method. It also helps to establish a professional image- and for some potential consumers, it generates a feeling of trust ("If the business is established enough to accept credit cards, they're a quality business that I should shop with!").

Home based businesses and online businesses can take advantage of a third party credit card processor instead of going directly with a merchant account if they wanted to. It allows a business to determine how many customers will make purchases with credit cards, as well as determine if more or higher sales come as a result of accepting credit cards as payments.

A third party credit card processor offers real-time processing online, online virtual terminals for entering manual transactions, no maximum limits for processing amounts in most cases, and the ability to set up recurring billing.

One of the advantages of using a third party credit card processor over establishing a merchant account is that instead of paying a transaction fee or a monthly fee, you pay a percentage of the sales (from 2% to 15%), and only when you actually make sales. Some merchant account providers require that you pay a monthly fee- even if you aren't making any credit card sales. By starting out with a third party credit card processor, you can judge how many customers might use the option to pay with credit cards before you go through the process of applying for a merchant account and getting everything set up.

How do third party payment processors work?

Once you have an account with a third party payment processor, you'll create links to your products that allow customers to order and pay with credit. The links send the customer to the
third-party processing company's server, and they handle the orders for you. Payments are processed by the company, and the sales are credited to your own business- less the third party processor's commission. You receive your money from the third party processing company at established payment intervals. Typically, money owed to you from the third party credit card
processing company is deposited automatically into a checking or savings account that you have set up for your business and linked to your account with the third party processor.

About The Author:

This article has been provided courtesy of Creditor Web, http://www.creditorweb.com .

A Day in the Life of a Website

By Cherie' Davidson

Ah, there he is. What did he do, sleep all night?! We'll never get any sales if he doesn't do something with me. My navigation is awkward, the page flow...well, it doesn't, and humans keep leaving the site after a few seconds. It's no fun for me, I can tell you! I'm a Website, damn it, and I deserve some respect!

My human - he calls himself a business man...ha! - is trying to make a living from me. But what can he expect when he has no clue what my visitors are thinking? This just chaps my scripts, I can tell you.

Okay, in all fairness, he did make me look good. Actually, real good. I'm hot...my graphics are sharp and engaging, my design is striking and if I were a photograph, I'd be framed in a fancy gallery! But doesn't he know, looks are only monitor deep? Pleeeez, get a clue! My very survival depends on business, which starts with happy humans. And unfortunately, as pretty as I am, I'm not making anyone happy. Yep, my days are numbered unless he starts paying attention to my needs!

Impatiently waiting for his human to fill his coffee mug, Website sits, wondering what today will hold...

Come on, come on! We're burning pixels here! Yes! Pull out your chair, there you go. Sit... alright! Gotcha! Now we're cooking. Yep, there's the familiar tap...and...woo hoo! He's pulling some of my files. We're finally going to get something done!

Human has been reading about Web analytics...

What is this? He's adding a strange little snippet of code. Hmmm, interesting, it's nonintrusive, but...whoa, baby! I can see who is looking at me! Wow! There's one from Alaska, and Arizona, oh,ya, and that place humans call Florida. This is a rush! Look at those traffic numbers climb! I've got to look at this deal. Ok, ya, reports, good. Easy to read. My human needs to look at these closely. Oh ya!

Wait a second! Only 20% of all these people went to my sales page?! That can't continue. Hey, human! Human! Are you seeing this?!

It seems Human is seeing the numbers, and he is realizing there is a lot he has been missing by not having used traffic reporting before now...

Ok, we need to look at this more closely. I see that 10% are buying once they get there. Hmmm, that could be improved! Oh, geez, look at that product description page - everyone is leaving when they get to it. What's up with that?! Human, you need to get a copywriter on that page, like now!

This is interesting, that press release he sent brought 379 people to the site. And 214 are from Florida. What else, oh...keywords! Aha! I don't see my #1 product anywhere.

The unpleasant screeching sound issuing from the computer echoes Human's feelings about his site. This Web analytics data is shedding light on some serious issues...

Come on, Human! Take your mouse by the horns and make some changes! This is good stuff we're seeing here. Your banner ad on that sweet little site in Canada is getting great response. Do more of that, would ya? I sure wouldn't mind connecting to some other hotties like that one, and we now know that pays off!

Human, you're...making changes! You go!!! Ahhh, I'm already seeing a difference...look at that! Not so many jumpers from the description page; they're starting to move over to sales. Now you've got it. Oh ya, this is doing the trick. You're seeing what needs to be changed, what works and what flops!

No more long, lonely nights, no more feelings of cart abandonment, no more dollars surfing out of my reach! I'm all choked up...Human, you couldn't have made a better move, and you're going to see the difference I can make now! Oh ya! My virtual world is turning around, thanks to one little snippet and a human who is paying attention to the reports.

What about your Website? Don't keep it in the dark, bored, doing nothing for you. An unfulfilled Website is a tremendous opportunity lost. By using Web analytics, it can do what it was created to do...bring you business!

About the Author:

Article written by freelance writer and Website content developer, Cherie' Davidson
(http://www.cheriedavidson.com). Cherie' is also copywriter and managing content editor for VisiStat, a Web reporting service
(http://www.visistat.com), and their informative Analytics Blog
(http://www.visistat.com/wordpress/). For more information, write her at editor at visistat.com.

Bells And Whistles - Does Your Site Really Need Them?

By Tim Whiston

Current graphics technology is awesome, and I love a good video game. But market testing has proven websites that go overboard with graphic design and special effects actually convert far fewer sales than sites with clean, attractive layouts that do not interfere with the most important element - the content!

I hate it when I come to a site looking for a product or service and I can't get past the streaming video intro. I also hate it when a fat audio file loads on every page I navigate, or when the flash elements and high-tech animations make it hard to find the order button.

Believe it or not I'm saying this as a professional web designer. And guess what?

According to multiple independent studies the average Internet consumer agrees with me!

It's a fact - sites with too many bells and whistles will actually drive your customers away before they have a chance to soak up your offer or at least subscribe to your opt-in list. As a rule, I don't even recommend flash as a viable media for direct response marketing.

Look at some of the most productive retail sites in any niche and you'll find clean, appealing graphics. But these visual creatives will not overshadow the most important element of all. the site's content!

Unless you are marketing a video game, a movie, or sophisticated animation software/design service, it's the content that generates sales and not the bells and whistles that turn your site into a digital carnival.

Don't get me wrong, both audio and video elements can have a tremendous impact on your conversions; but not if these features are presented in place of quality sales copy and plenty of solid consumer information.

High-tech design solutions should be applied in a way that compliments your content. Your marketing message should never be upstaged by visual theatrics or dazzling sound effects unless you're in the business of selling such effects to site owners who don't know any better.

Regardless of how far technology advances it is highly unlikely the average consumer will ever stop demanding quality content prior to his or her purchase of your product or service. So lead with your message and let the special effects blend in and compliment your content delivery.

Keep the balance between graphic design and strong copy, and your visitors will be far more likely to stick around and give you the chance to close the deal.

About The Author:

Tim Whiston is a full-time entrepreneur who helps small businesses and individual professionals develop a profitable web presence for their ventures. Have a look at his Website Design Service to find powerful and cost-effective solutions for your business. http://www.timwhiston.com

Website Development On Your Own Terms

By Scott Lindsay

The early days of web development saw a relatively small handful of 'experts' and had them seeking to find ways to make a website do what their client wanted them to do. There was very little standardized methods to make website development an easy process and each site may have been designed with customized programming that may have been totally incompatible
with any other site.

When the number of programmers raised from a few hundred to more than 30,000 it became much clearer that there needed to be some cohesive way to simplify things. This process led to new partnerships and development applications that have become the standards of the day.

As new developments are unveiled they are field tested by programmers and implemented once it is clear that the methodology is workable.

In many cases these new development programs can be refined and repackaged into a form based method that allows non-tech customers to develop a website that is as functional as any
other site and at a fraction of the cost.

Certainly this was not possible in 1995, but through the trial and error of more than ten years the best features have risen to the top and the have proven very useful to both programmers
as well as online business.

With so many programs available to developers today it is becoming much easier to upgrade features and enhance website productivity.

Many programmers are very interested in making site developments self-directed by their customers. The reason is simply the sheer numbers of new sites that are being developed. If at least a portion of the site can be managed by the customer there are two benefits, 1) less need for one on one development for the programmer and, 2) more direct control by the website owner.

When the business owner has the capability of managing the functions of the website the faster the clarity of vision can be realized. This is largely viewed as one of the predominate features of self-directed programming on website developments.

The cost effective nature of self-directed site development has caused many to wonder why they didn't look into this solution before. Many new start-up ecommerce sites have discovered this method to be the quickest way to provide their potential customers with the full benefit of their services.

The future of web development has a lot to do with the expectations of website owners and the demands of the consuming public. It is a safe assumption that as new technologies are required there will be programmers who can assist in its development and then work to refine the function so that ecommerce can implement the technology in a self-directed user-friendly format.

About The Author:

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects. Get your own website online in just 5 minutes with HighPowerSites at: http://www.highpowersites.com. Start your own ebook business with BooksWealth at:
http://www.bookswealth.com

The Keys To Building A Successful Ecommerce Website

By Alexander Thomas

An ecommerce website is fast becoming an essential piece of the modern business' success with the gradual shift in business environment to the online landscape. For the website to make any type of substantial contribution however, the business needs to have a complete understanding of its' customers wants and needs. This is perhaps the toughest aspect of the online business model.

Tools such as web analytic software can provide early guidance on how to proceed into the online business world. Designed testing to gain insight into visitor traffic patterns enables the user to monitor the site traffic in order to study the general market issues, number of visitors clicking into the pages of the sites etc. A business can use this information to design and develop the optimal solution to address these visitors / potential customers.

From the small out-of-the-basement business to the giant entities, regardless of business mode (B2B or B2C), building an ecommerce site has a terrific significance in today's market. The subject of building an ecommerce site involves certain pivotal steps that the web site developer is required to take for planning, developing and putting it into action by using applications such as Microsoft studio .NET.

One can find tons of detailed information regarding the choices of the designs the developer needs for building an ecommerce site. In this issue, it is important to discuss about the term
"Handel" since it is very much a related topic. A "Handel" is basically a set of technical modules that are used to perform certain repetitive usual actions such as adding and removing items to and from the shopping cart and other usual tasks which are related to making ecommerce software.

Building the best solution involves solving for the endgame. What is the end goal the site should accomplish? With this in mind, build the site mechanics using reverse engineering, always keeping the end result in mind. It is best to always strive to build efficiencies and ease-of-use so that the visitor avoids any type of confusion in navigation. Build it and they will come!

There are certain criterions that must be met to build up a better ecommerce site. A better ecommerce site must give a clear view of the company's actual status and should be comprehensive and substantial. It is very important to create an ecommerce site in such a way that it becomes capable to deliver within a very short window of time. If you continue to focus on the question, "why should a customer buy from me?" then your project will experience the greatest end success.

Another pivotal point regarding building a better ecommerce site is fewer the number of pages, better it is for the external world. The site should display the points of guarantee or warrantee for the products and should be built in such a way so as to assure the customer that you will always be there to help the customer if anything goes wrong.

About The Author:

Alexander Thomas is a respected author and contributor to Ecommerce-Site.org -
(http://ecommerce-site.org), a leading authority and resource directory for information on Ecommerce on the internet.

Increase Your Google Adsense Earnings The Visitor Friendly Way

By Barry Fenning

Google Adsense has provided website owners a simple way to make money online. Just copy and paste a simple piece of code into your website and you can be making money within 5 minutes. No wages for salespersons, no dealing with advertisers, no hassles. However, there is a big difference between making a couple of cents per day and retiring on your own private yacht
in the Caribbean . There is more to do than simply plugging your advertisements into any section of your website, sitting back, and hoping the cheques will start pouring through the
door.

If you are looking for a way to increase your earnings with Google Adsense with your Blog or Website then the following tips should help:

1. Blend you Adsense Advertisements with the rest of your page.

This is a very simple but not always used tip. Countless studies have shown that users are more likely to click on your Adsense advertisements if they have the same link and font colours as the rest of your page. Google makes sure that the advertisement relevancy matches the content of your web page so by blending the Adsense advertisements it will provide a consistent look to your page with relevant content as well.

2. Putting Adsense Above or Below the fold?

The "fold" is simply known as the bottom of the page. If you have to scroll down to see more information on a page, this section is known as "below the fold". Test your Adsense placement by analyzing the CTR (click through rate) that you get for advertisements that are above the fold, take them out and then put them below the fold, you'll get a better picture to see which has greater success. There is no hard-and-fast rule to what suits better but remember that success has a lot to do with location, location, location. So get testing.

3. Take the clutter out of your Website.

Like a good spring cleaning exercise look at your webpages and analyze what your visitors find useful and what gets very little clicks. This is not only good practice towards creating a more user-friendly website but it also allows you to test Adsense ads in different areas of your pages and see identify improvements on advertisement CTRs.

4. Help the Adsense robot.

A picture says a thousand words but to a robot/spider that is crawling your pages a picture says very little about what the content is about. If your site contains a lot of pictures then do yourself, your visitor, and the Adsense bot a favour and add some text to let everyone know what the image is about. This way the Adsense advertisements will be more targeted to what your site/page is all about and the user won't see unrelated advertisements within your website.

5. Increase your website traffic.

Seems like another obvious one, but so many good websites exist that aren't reaching their potential target market. By optimising your website to gain better search engine rankings,
participating in forums that are related to your website, submitting your website to industry related directories, and getting the word out there in any way that you can think of will help drive targeted visitors to your website. Remember that the internet is an amazingly powerful medium to facilitate word-of-mouth. The effort you put into promoting your site will be rewarded by satisfied visitors/customers spreading the word about your website throughout the World Wide Web. However, make sure that you have a quality website/product/service or the opposite can happen just as quick.

In conclusion by incorporating the above tips you should improve your Adsense earnings. I'm not telling you that by using the above that you'll be retiring on your yacht with your Pina Colada in hand. So don't quit your day-job. If you follow the advice above it will get you on your way to improving your CTRs, your website design, and the experience for your user. Probably the most important thing that these tips help you with is to encourage you to test and experiment with Adsense and not just assume that whatever the style you use and wherever you put it is the right place.

About The Author:

Barry Fenning is the owner of
http://www.betteririshwebsites.com A SEO Articles website that
is aimed at people new to the area of search engine
optimization and online marketing. Please include this bio for
permission to reproduce this article.

5 Common Web Hosting Mistakes

John Lenaghan

Mistakes aren't necessarily a bad thing, but if you can learn
from other people's mistakes it can save you from having to
deal with them yourself. When it comes to web hosting, there
are basically two kinds of mistakes - technical and general
business.

Technical mistakes usually come up because of a
misunderstanding of the internet and how it actually works. The
first mistake many people make when creating a website is to
cram as much information, photographs, images, etc. on each
page as possible.

This makes the site take longer to download, leading to many
visitors just moving on and never actually looking at the site.
It also makes it more difficult to find what they're looking for
if the page is unorganized.

Another common error is creating a web site that isn't search
engine friendly. If the search engines can't determine what
your site is about, they aren't going to be able to send you
people who are searching for what you offer.

A mistake that many people make when starting out is to choose
a host solely based on price. This is obviously an important
factor, especially in the beginning, but if you choose the
cheapest host you may be limited in your scalability as the
website grows in popularity and traffic.

On the business side of things, the most common mistake is
trying to be everything to everyone. You should have a plan for
your website - a purpose for its existence - and build according
to that plan.

Choose your target market and stick with it. Advertise in
places they would see. Market in ways that would be of interest
to them. Resist the urge to branch out into other areas just
because something catches your eye. A site that tries to do
everything usually ends up achieving nothing.

Another common business mistake is following the competition's
lead. You'll obviously want to keep an eye on them to see what
they're up to, but if you copy everything they do you'll always
be one step behind.

Use your creativity and come up with unique ways to stand out
from the rest of the websites in your market.

About The Author:

John Lenaghan writes about web site hosting
and other related topics for the Hosting Report website. For
more helpful web hosting information visit
http://www.hostingreport.org

Start Managing Your Website Easily With A Content Management System

Heris Yunora

One main advantage of using CMS is one will be able to manage
the contents of ones websites without having to deal with
complicated technical tasks. Imagine that you are a very
talented writer but you can't show your writings online just
because you don't have any idea how to write webpages
thatconsist of HTML tags.

With CMS, a writer only needs to type her works in an editor as
if she does it with a word processor. Then the CMS itself that
will show her works online. It is a great time saver for a
webmaster to create and maintain her website. The installation
process is also very easy since many web hosting services have
offered special features such as Fantastico where a user can
install a CMS with just a few clicks of mouse. The process is
done automatically.

Basically, a web content management system consists of two main
parts, a front-end and a back-end. The back-end is a section
where you can do many administrative tasks such as inserting
and editing articles, giving privileges to some people,
managing the look and feel of your website, and so on. The
front-end refers to what visitors see. It is the face of your
website.

In choosing a CMS, you should know what is the main purpose of
using it. There are CMSs which are intended to build portals.
Other systems are mainly used to build photo gallery, forum,
personal or even corporate websites. Then you need to know what
kind of features they have. For example, Drupal, an open source
CMS, provides a feature where you can gather fresh contents
from other sites by adding the sites' feeds. You can even
filter any items so that you only show the items that contain a
specific keyword.

Usually, a CMS also offers additional modules that will enable
you to use additional features without having to put your
efforts in programming. Just download the module you need and
install it in your hosting server.

Don't forget also to know your own desires and abillities in
modifying a CMS. For instance, Mambo should be sufficient for
you who don't want to deal with some PHP coding. Mambo has
already provided many modules to accomplish specific tasks. It
also offers ready-to-use templates you can choose. On the other
hand Typo3 is the right choice for people who need a very robust
and flexible system.

It is necessary to know that there are so many commercial and
free content management system available. Vignette and FatWire
are the example of two commercial systems while PostNuke,
Drupal and Mambo.are free to use.

And, of course there are other things you should consider for
finding the right CMS. So please do a good and thorough
analysis before deciding which system to use. Choosing the
right Content Management System from the beginning is very
important. Make sure it would best fit your needs.

About The Author:

Heris Yunora
http://www.unlimitedhostingplan.com

Is Your Website Ugly Enough?

By Ray L. Edwards

What gives a website owner fuzzy feelings inside is not the
same thing that makes the site sell. In fact, it has been
proven and shown over and over again that UGLY, but functional
sites outsell fancy looking websites designed to win creative
awards.

Think about the most popular e-commerce sites online: eBay,
Amazon, MySpace and Skype, and you'll see that they are not big
on design. But they are simple, clear and very intuitive for the
visitor to use.

So skip the Flash introductions (or your visitors will!) and
all those slide show graphics because they are just distracting
at best to what you want to accomplish. When a prospect comes to
your site you don't want to try and win their attention because
you ALREADY have their attention. Instead you want to GIVE them
attention by making their task easier.

Speaking of tasks, people come to your website with a certain
aim in mind. You have to build a site that would facilitate the
accomplishment of that aim. So if you are promising a free
report then show them CLEARLY how they can get the report in
the least steps.

One characteristic that mark web surfers is that they are
impatient. If you website doesn't satisfy the advertised need,
then your competition is just one click away. No driving
required, no walking to the next closest store, but just one
mouse click and they are gone!

Here are some ways in which you can design a website that's
functional:

1. Make your navigation system as intuitive and consistent
throughout the website. Same placement, color scheme etc.

2. Watch the layout of your text to make the information
readable. Not too many dense paragraphs and use a lot of white
space.

3. Make your headline stand out by using a larger font and
attention-getting color.

4. Guide the user step-by-step in accomplishing their task.
Number these steps if possible. Do not assume too much. What's
obvious to you the owner of the site may not be obvious to a
new visitor. (Much like your home.)

5. Label action buttons appropriate, such as: "Click Here To
Buy", "Click Here To Subscribe!"

As a copywriter, I've found that 'marked up' sales letters
-yellow highlighting, underlines, bolding, etc. had a higher
response than clean looking copy. And what people SAY is often
the opposite of what they DO! (Welcome to the human family.)

So in other words, the colleagues who tell you that your
website looks "pretty" don't buy from such sites. "Does this
site look good?" is a wasted question.

"Would this site sell?"--that is the question.

Don't be flattered by the friends who tell you, "WOW, your site
looks good!" Aim for the UGLY site that fattens your bank
account.

About The Author:

Ray L. Edwards is a published author, a
copywriting coach and internet marketing consultant. You may
find more information on boosting your online sales by visiting
http://www.yourwebsiteconversion.com

The Basics Of Web Hosting Services

Article written by: Gabriel Adams

The Internet is full of different web hosting companies these
days. There are many different choices to help you get your
site on the web. However all of these different web hosting
companies offer a variety of different services. How are you
ever going to choose which company is right for your web site?
The easiest way to choose between the different web hosting
companies is to look at the different services they offer and
choose which one is the best fit for your web site.

Most web hosting companies offer basically the same types of
services, but some companies offer better quality services than
others. One of the most important services to look for when
choosing a web hosting company is the amount of space they will
give you. If you plan on creating a very large web site, then
you need to make sure that the web hosting company you choose
gives plenty of storage so that your web site has room to grow.
Also many web hosting companies offer free email accounts when
you host your web site with them. This can be a great feature
if you plan on giving out email addresses on your web site, or
you need email addresses for employees in your company. However
if you do not need many email addresses, then this is not a
great service for you.

I believe one of the most important services that can set a web
hosting company apart from other companies is the ability to
create web sites that can use server-side code. Using
server-side code will allow you to communicate with a database
on their server, and dynamically make changes on the web site
depending on what information is in that database. In this new
age of Web 2.0, using server-side code to create a truly
dynamic user-driven web site is essential. However if you just
want to communicate your message to your audience, and you do
not need to have your users interact with your site, this
service might not be that important to you. No matter what kind
of web site you are creating there is a web hosting company out
there with the services that you need.

About The Author: Get help choosing the best Web Hosting at
http://www.webhost-advisor.com/

SSL: Site Security And Privacy

Article written by: Scott Lindsay

Netscape began using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) in 1994 as a
means of sending sensitive data over the web. The newer edition
of the service is called Transport Layer Security (TLS),
although even this is routinely known by the SSL designation.

Before the introduction of SSL it was difficult to ensure
privacy over the web in online transactions. There was a
general distrust of the ability to conduct online transactions
and a fear that an individual's credit card information could
be picked up by a third party and used for unauthorized
purchases.

What makes SSL unique is an encryption technique that sends
credit card and other personal data through the web. This
encryption technique makes the information totally useless to
anyone who does not have decoding abilities. If a third party
were to intercept the information it would be useless to them.

The use of SSL Digital Certificates also provides a unique
level of trust because a certificate verifies the users
authenticity. This is an important step in instilling trust in
potential customers. Many savvy consumers will avoid an online
retailer entirely if they do not use SSL.

Without the proper use of SSL, information such as credit card
numbers, third parties with less than positive motivations
could obtain passwords and personal identification numbers.

A 128-bit key that is harder to break and typically protects
personal account information than the 40-bit key. If your name
and address is all that is being protected a 40-bit key may be
used; the higher bit the key, the greater level of encryption.
Most financial institutions only use 128-but keys for the
security of their client's data.

As an online marketer you will likely be asking your visitors
for personal data. Don't be surprised if your potential
customer determines their willingness to do business with you
based on the security of your website. Many customers will look
for the SSL symbol and will move along if the don't find it. SSL
use can also be recognized by a lock symbol in the lower right
hand corner of your browser window. If the symbol is unlocked
then SSL is not in use on the site.

SSL should be enacted on pages requiring a password or might
contain personal data most clients would like to keep private.
Some sites will place SSL on some pages and forget other pages
that are equally as sensitive. For the sake of your personal
experience with ecommerce you should implement SSL protocol.

About The Author: Scott Lindsay is a web developer and
entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many
other web projects. HighPowerSites is the easiest
do-it-yourself website builder on the web. Get your own website
online in just 5 minutes with http://HighPowerSites.com at:
http://www.highpowersites.com

Online Personalization 2.0: This Time It's Personal

By: John Black

After the flame-out of early business models focused on online personalization - for instance Firefly - it was easy to dismiss this as another over-hyped casualty of the dot-com boom. But there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the technology or the concept. It was primarily ahead of its time. Now personalization is an integral part of leading e-commerce sites such as iTunes, Amazon and NetFlix, and a contributing factor to their success. However, beyond this top tier, use of personalization is not yet widespread online.

All of the macro trends - expanded product selection, consumer-generated content and information overload - suggest that personalization is poised to come back in a big way. What's needed for mass adoption is a new business model rather than new technology.

Trends

First, let's look at the trends that build the needs and the opportunities for personalization Product selection. The "Long Tail" phenomenon was first coined by Wired in 2004 to describe how, removed from the constraints of the physical world, the economics of retailing and the behavior of consumers have changed radically. Where a traditional retail store could only dedicate shelf space to high volume products, an e-commerce site can stock literally millions of products.

Consumer-generated content: Partly in response to distrust of marketers and professional critics, partly in response to the ease of personal publishing/blogging, consumers are posting their views, profiles and opinions online en masse. An estimated 33 million Americans have rated or reviewed products online. Social networks like MySpace and Facebook have become a cultural phenomenon. The combined voice of consumers is a powerful force. Study after study shows that word of mouth by far carries the most influence on purchase decisions.

Information Overload: Unfortunately, consumer-generated content is often lacking in relevance. A consumer reading conflicting reviews of the same product is often left asking: what do people like me think of this? Was the one-star book review from an English professor, or from a high school dropout? Further, it is often difficult to separate objective feedback from self-promotion.

While online retailing offers consumers unlimited choice, this choice can be paralyzing. While word of mouth often provides objective peer opinions, just as often it creates more confusion without any filter on relevance.

Existing Solutions

New online services and technologies are starting to emerge to solve these problems. The site Trendwatching.com has coined the term "Twinsumer" to describe matching consumers up with "their taste twins; fellow consumers somewhere in the world who think, react, enjoy and consume the way they do." These solutions address real and growing consumer concerns:

* Tell me what's right for me
* Help me explore beyond the mainstream, or in the words of Wired, push people down the long tail

Personalized recommendations are typically driven by statistics, in the form of "collaborative filtering", or by the user's own network of contact. In collaborative filtering, "like users" (or "like items") are matched based on their statistical similarity. So it Bob and James liked 10 of the same books, the 11th book that James rated 5-stars would be recommended to Bob. Or if customers who buy the Godfather Part 1 also buy the Godfather Part 2,... well you get the idea.

In the social network approach, recommendations are driven by your friends, or by people you have chosen to bring into your online circle of trust. This operates more like traditional word of mouth, but on a much larger scale.

These personalization solutions tend to be tied to either e-commerce or affiliate marketing business models:

* e-commerce merchants: iTunes, Amazon, NetFlix, eMusic
* online communities: listal.com, nextfavorite.com, librarything.com. ratingzone.com
* music applications: Pandora.com, last.fm, MusicIP. Yahoo Music

In most cases, personalized recommendations have focused on product categories with a) broad selection and b) subjective tastes. Hence, books, music and movies.

Challenges

With all of the promise of personalization to increase sales and improve customer loyalty, you'd think its use would be more widespread. However, every personalization application faces the dual, and opposing, challenges of critical mass and data quality. The best recommender technology is worthless without enough data to populate the recommendations. In categories with a broad selection, such as books, recommendations are not very effective beyond the most mainstream titles until the number of ratings/purchases reach the hundreds of thousands.

So how to get hundreds of thousands of data points from customers before you can offer effective recommendations? Most e-commerce sites use observed customer behavior - clicks, searches, carted items and purchases - to infer product feedback. While this is the quicker and easier path to critical mass, it sacrifices data quality. Just because a user clicked on or even bought an item does not mean they liked it. Often the customer purchased a gift, did not enjoy the product, or had a one-off need for the product. I suspect other people have a similar mish-mash of recommendations at Amazon as I do: from gardening tools to lullaby CDs to Accounting books.

These data challenges - not technology limitations - have kept personalized product recommendations out of all but the very largest, most sophisticated e-commerce sites. And let's not forgot about traditional brick and mortar retailing, which still accounts for 90%+ of book and music sales. When was the last time you got "personalized" service at a big box retailer or chain
store?

A New Approach

There's no good reason why every retailer shouldn't be able to implement personalization as well or better than Amazon or iTunes. At least in books, music, movies, video games and probably consumer electronics and travel. In this new world of ASPs, Web 2.0, APIs and web services, the technical barriers have been all but removed.

Which leaves the data. A new business model that can successfully aggregate anonymous customer data and product reviews across multiple retailers could be far larger, and more predictive, than any database within a single merchant. And literally any retailer, down to a single-store independent bookseller, could tap into the benefits by also contributing to this uber-database. If this sounds farfetched, note that Abacus Direct grew a similar cooperative database model into a $100 million business in the offline catalog market.

The benefits are clear for those sites who have successfully implemented personalized product recommendations: dramatic improvements in sales, conversion rates and customer loyalty.

About the Author:

John Black has a long experience with personalization and predictive modeling. John was the product manager for the first one-to-one online banner ad targeting product at DoubleClick, and managed market research and new product development at Abacus, the leading predictive modeling company in the catalog market. John is currently the founder and CEO of NextFavorite.com (http://www.nextfavorite.com), a personalization service provider.

You Don't Need More Traffic To Make More Money

By: Adam McFarland

Every website owner has a somewhat unhealthy obsession with driving more traffic to their site. We all want more traffic, if for nothing else to be able to brag to others how many unique visitors we've received. Competition among web owners aside, actually doing something with that traffic is equally as important as getting it. Yet for some reason, most site owners make the mistake of focusing most of their time on getting more traffic and rarely, if ever, focus on improving their conversion rate.

What is a conversion?

A conversion happens whenever a visitor to your site performs a desired action. It might be purchasing a product, signing up for a newsletter, signing up for an account, or even clicking on an advertisement (although I'd advise against making the goal of your site to have someone click away from it). One way or another, if you have a site, you've got a desired action that you want the user to perform.

How big of a difference can it make?

Consider Company A and Company B. Both sell online subscriptions to their news services for a one-time fee of $100. They each attract 1000 unique visitors per day. Company A converts 2%of their visitors whereas Company B converts 5%. Big deal right? How much does 3% really matter? Well, Company A sells 20 subscriptions per day, or 7,300 per year for $730,000 of revenue. Not bad. But Company B sells 50 subscriptions per day, or 18,250 per year for $1,825,000 of revenue!

Without any variation in traffic, you can improve conversion rate on your site and drastically increase revenue. Now, is increasing from 2% to 5% going be a challenge? Certainly, but it is by no means impossible and in most cases is probably easier than you think.

What's a good conversion rate?

Some people will tell you that an "average" conversion rate is 2%-5% and an "amazing" conversion rate is 10%-15%. To me, that's a broad statement. I'm not saying that you should completely ignore those numbers, just that you should understand where they are coming from. Those numbers tend to apply to e-commerce sites selling to consumers. They also don't factor in where traffic is coming from, product pricing, and about a hundred other potential factors that could affect your conversion rate.

There are times when a 2% conversion rate is phenomenal. For example, if you are selling software licenses for $20,000, converting 1 in 50 visitors is pretty exemplary. On the flip side, if your goal is to have people sign up for a football newsletter and all of your traffic is coming from an ad you placed on NFL.com, 15% might be considered really poor.

My answer to "what's a good conversion rate" is any conversion rate that's better than your current one.

Start by doing a self-evaluation and set a baseline

Before you can even think about trying to increase your conversion rate, you need to have a system in place to track your current conversions. In its simplest form, conversion rate can be calculated by dividing the number of conversions into the number of visitors to your site for a specified time period. Most site owners will want more in depth statistics (such as what page visitors came from and what pages potential customers left their site from) so I would recommend a web analytics program like the free Google Analytics that provides in-depth reporting and can calculate your conversion rates for you.

How will I know if my changes worked?

In my mind, the only way to think about conversion rate is to start at your current rate and start striving to convert 100% of the visitors to your site. Is that ever going to happen?Probably not, but as Les Brown said - "shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." Shoot for 100% conversion rate and even if you don't get there, in attempting to do so you'll be instilling the necessary qualities for amazing improvements.

With that in mind, you should begin the process of trying to improve your conversion rate from your baseline. The bad news when it comes to increasing conversion rate is that there is no "one thing" that every site owner can do to increase it. The good news is that there are literally thousands of things that you can try that might increase it. Each one of those things might help, or each might hurt.

And therein lies the key to success in increasing conversion rate - testing, evaluating, and then testing and evaluating some more. Each time you should be striving to "beat your previous best." If you went from 2% to 2.2%, keep the change and try for 2.5% with your next change. If you went from 2% to 1.5%, undo the change and try to get back over 2% with your next change. In general, you should give a sufficient amount of time to evaluate a change - I generally use one month as a rule of thumb, but you should factor in how much traffic you get and how large the change is when determining how long collect data for before evaluating a change.

What type of changes should I make?

As I mentioned before, there are thousands of things that you can change that can affect conversion rates. So where should you start? Start by walking in the shoes of your customer. Using the example of an e-commerce site, there are several types of customers that find your site. For the customer looking to buy immediately, is it easy to find the "buy" button or do you have to look around for it? For the customer wanting more information (product info, shipping info, or info about your business), is that easy to find? And for customers just browsing, do you have a way to entice them to buy, or at least entice them to sign up for a newsletter so that you can try to convert them at a later time?

Asking yourself those questions should result in several subtle changes and probably a few not so-subtle changes that you can make. In addition, ask yourself whether or not the design of your site - logo, layout, colors, and font - appeal to senses and make it easy for people to find what they're looking for.

You should also seriously consider the content of your text. Is it possible that some people don't understand what your product or service does? Could international users interpret your phrases differently than domestic users, and if so, is there a way you could re-word your copy to avoid confusion? Ad copy is a funny thing - a subtle word change can often drastically affect conversion rates. The only way to know is to test.

Remember, you should only make one change at a time to be able to properly evaluate it. Each change will help point you in the right direction of the next change. Much like SEO, increasing conversion rate is not a one time event, it is an improvement process that you facilitate over the life of your site. That said, it is not an extremely difficult process, and when used in conjunction with sound SEO it can bring results to your site that you could have never imagined.

About The Author:

Adam McFarland owns iPrioritize (http://www.iPrioritize.com) - simple to-do lists that can be edited at any time from any place in the world. Email, print, check from your mobile phone, subscribe via RSS, and share with others.

See Your Website Through Your Visitor's Eyes

By: Kim Roach

Every time a visitor comes to your site, they take a particular path. Their eyes move in quick motion, hopping from one hotspot to the next. If you don't know how your visitors are traveling, your conversion rates will suffer dramatically. Fortunately, there is a company who has performed in-depth testing for you, revealing the common behaviors of people viewing web pages.

The company is known as Eyetrack and they began studying online behavior in 1999. Because of these studies they have been able to help web masters to improve their site designs, headlines, font sizes, navigation, article formats, and even their ads.

They track eye movements as a visitor travels through a website and how they scan any individual page. With this information, they have created heat maps to show where visitors focus most of their attention. On these heat maps, red areas are the most popular and blue areas are the least popular.

You can see some examples of heat maps at
http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/heatmap.htm

You can also find a complete summary of the EyeTrack results at:
http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/index.htm

However, since the results comprise over 300 pages, I've provided you with the golden nuggets that can be gleaned from this study below.

Article Formats

Your visitors are certainly not reading your website word for word. They are scanning and picking out relevant information that they feel is important. Fortunately, you can attract your visitors to certain content simply by placing it in the right spots.

These simple changes can increase your sales, subscriber sign-ups, and your return on investment.

The headline, for example, is often the first element that people see on your site. To draw people into an article, you must have a compelling headline that speaks directly to your visitors needs and wants.

In fact, a change in the headline on a sales page can produce a 1,900% increase in sales. This is certainly an element that should not be taken lightly.

You might also want to begin your articles with a boldface introductory paragraph. 95 percent of readers in the Eyetrack study viewed all or part of the introduction when presented with an article to read.

On the Internet, where information abounds and the majority of people are paralyzed by information overload, most appreciate the addition of an introductory paragraph that summarizes your article.

Once they have come to the actual content, however, how do you get them to continue reading?There are a few formatting issues to keep in mind when designing the layout of your article.

You will definitely need to use short, snappy paragraphs. Eyetrack III research found that shorter paragraphs received twice as many eye fixations as those with longer paragraphs.

Most people also seem to focus on the left side of the page and look for related words that might entice them to read closer. Therefore, you will want to include some important keywords on the left-hand side of the page so that readers can quickly see them out and be pulled further into the material.

You can also encourage your readers to continue reading by using bolding and enticing sub headings.

Font Size

The Eyetrack III research discovered that smaller type encourages focused reading rather than scanning. Very interesting. In general, their testing found that people spent more time focusedon small type than large type. The larger type resulted in increased scanning of the page. Of course, you don't want your visitors to be squinting to try and read your text. The key is to find the appropriate balance that will encourage readers to focus on your text more than they scan.

It was also found that underlined headlines discouraged readers from viewing the following text. Overall, visual breaks (such as a line or rule) discourage people from looking at items beyond the break.

Now, on to one of my favorite web design topics...

Navigation

Eyetracker found that navigation at the top of a homepage performed best, meaning that it was seen by the highest percentage of test subjects and looked at for the longest duration.

Your navigation is best placed on the top or left side of the page. Why? Simply because this is what people are used to. If you go along with the crowd, people are much more likely to effectively browse your website.

Advertising

So, what about ads? As you have probably heard, many people ignore ads. The online world has a massive case of banner blindness. However, good placement and design can often improve your results.

For example, ads in the top and left portions of a homepage receive the most attention.

Ads on the right side of the page don't do as well.

In addition, ads that are placed next to important editorial content can really help attract attention to the ads. These ads perform best when they are truly integrated into the actual content of the page.

If you are using images within your advertising, keep the following in mind.

Images receive much more attention if they are larger. For example, one of the test pages in the Eyetrack III test found that a postage-stamp sized image was viewed by 10 percent of the participants while an average sized photo (about 230 pixels wide and deep) drew the attention of 70 percent of the people.

Their research also showed that clean, clear faces in images attract more eye attention on homepages. So, if you are using small images within your advertisements, you may want to enlarge them a bit if you want people to be drawn to them.

On the other hand, people seem to avoid ads when a visual barrier is placed between the ad and the content.

These breaks can consist of either white space or a border.

Ads that blend into the look and feel of the page draw the most attention. In addition, text ads were also found to receive the most response.

By now, you may be wondering what these studies have shown about search engines. Exactly what do people look at when they are presented with a list of search engine results? Well, that is an excellent question and one that has been studied extensively.

A joint eye tracking study performed by search marketing firms Enquiro and Did-it and eye tracking firm Eyetools has shown that the majority of eye activity during a search happens within a triangle at the top of the search results page.

This area of maximum interest has been referred to as the "golden triangle". The study showed that the top 5 results (ones above the fold) received the most exposure.

Here is a chart showing the organic ranking visibility of the top 10 positions.

Rank 1 - 100%
Rank 2 - 100%
Rank 3 - 100%
Rank 4 - 85%
Rank 5 - 60%
Rank 6 - 50%
Rank 7 - 50%
Rank 8 - 30%
Rank 9 - 30%
Rank 10 - 20%

Side sponsored ads receive significantly less attention. Here is an overview of the visibility of the side sponsored ads based on position:

1 - 50%
2 - 40%
3 - 30%
4 - 20%
5 - 10%
6 - 10%
7 - 10%
8 - 10%

This is largely due to an "F" shaped scan pattern in which the eye tends to travel vertically along the far left side of the results and then scan to the right occasionally if something catches its attention.

These statistics show the importance of ranking well and also of using relevant keywords within your title and description. With a relevant and interesting title and description, you can attract more eyeballs within the search engine results.

As always, keep in mind that the information gleaned from these studies are simply a guide. Nothing can beat your own testing. If you don't have good content it doesn't matter how good your layout is.

However, by using some simple layout techniques, you can influence the path your visitors take within your website.

About the Author:
Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews (http://www.sitepronews.com/) & SEO-News (http://www.seo-news.com/) newsletters. You can also find additional tips and news on webmaster and SEO topics by Kim at the SiteProNews blog(http://www.blog.sitepronews.com/). Kim's email is: kim@seo-news.com

Web Standards, Browsers And Designing For The Future

By: James Opiko

At present, a vast majority of webmasters are designing for IE (Internet Explorer) 6, which is not as W3C standards compliant as is FireFox, Netscape, Safari and Opera.

In my article - "The importance of sound website design & search spiders to Internet Marketers," I mentioned the importance of a designer being cognizant of the fact that web browser standards are not yet fully harmonized - a web page that looks great in Internet Explorer (6) might look hideous in a Mozilla based browser like FireFox or Netscape.

I also noted that with the explosion of devices with which to serve Internet applications, compliance with W3C standards has become critical.

When the final release for IE 7 for Windows XP, Server 2003 & Vista is launched, hopefully before the end of 2006, the tables will be turned, so to speak.

Internet Explorer 7 will be more standards compliant and your HTML code will be subject to much more rigorous interpretation than is the case with IE 6, consequently some web pages that look fine in IE 6 might not look the same IE 7.

In IE 7 Microsoft has made a solemn effort to fix the browsers acquiescence to W3C standards and CSS(Cascading Style Sheets) compatibility. CSS interpretation as recommended by W3C has been improved tremendously giving designers and developers more leverage in functionality for cross-browser design.

Microsoft asserts that they are taking W3C compatibility issues seriously.

Concisely what this means is that IE 7 will tend to interpret your web page code more scrupulously than before.

Therefore, if you have been designing your pages and have not bothered to check how they render in W3C Standards Compliant browsers like FireFox, you may be in for a rude shock when IE 7 finally rolls out.

If you have not been incorporating W3C Web standards in your design strategy you may need to re-design for IE 7.

How should you go about it?

Design for "strict" browsers like FireFox first. Not only is FireFox a more standards-compliant browser but it is also the primary competitor to Internet Explorer. A contender backed by Google's marketing machine -- and therefore, is not likely do "a Netscape" on designers.

Prior and up to IE 4.x, Netscape was the leading browser in the market with almost 80% of the market, but in a bid to force the issue culminating with proprietary goofs by AOL to whom Netscape sold out, they screwed up big time with versions 4 up to 6. A bitter war of attrition with Microsoft in the late nineties did not help either.

Microsoft grabbed the opportunity and gobbled the Browser market overnight.

With version 7+ Netscape has been revived. How well it will compete with IE and FireFox remains to be seen.

I will be the first to admit that most the web pages I have built in the last several years are not always standards compliant...and so are ninety five percent of other web pages -- as I stated in my previous article, "if strict W3C standards were to be enforced in browsers, most websites would go out of business."

To design for FireFox a designer needs to combine Valid CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for "look and feel" and W3C compliant HTML for web page structure.

The combination of these two design strategies is powerful in that it elicits tremendous flexibility, ease of maintenance and opens up extensive possibilities in website design. The benefits are rewarding, and every webmaster should attempt to utilize this two pronged scheme in their design routine.

Making changes to and/or styling a site designed with CSS is much easier and more elegant than messing around with a traditional table-based design.

CSS may look intimidating to a first-timer but once you familiarize with the basics you can progressively harness the power of CSS to your full benefit. In addition, most web page design tools such as Dreamweaver of FrontPage have built in modules with which you can automatically generate CSS code, which you can then view in a plain text editor for study purposes.

To aid you in your CSS endeavor you need the following developer tools: Web Developer Extension for FireFox and the Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar. Great time-saving tools for creating, understanding, and troubleshooting Web pages.

As a matter of fact, by installing some of the 1,500+ available FireFox extensions you can eliminate the need for quite a chunk of standalone desktop applications.

After designing your Web page remember to us a MarkUp Validation Service to check whether your Web page conforms to W3C recommendations. If there are errors, the validator will notify you of them and suggest corrections.

Also, remember that when designing using W3C standards guidelines a lot of code(tags) that were very valid in the "Pre-Standards" era have completely depreciated and will be ignored completely by browsers. If you ignore these errors during validation, your web pages might not render correctly.

In many instances, you may never be able to achieve 100% HTML or XHTML validation. In such cases you may want put the following DOCTYPE declaration in your document -- at the top of your web page before the tag:

< !DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01
Transitional//EN" >

Note: remove space after " < " and before " > "

A "Document Type Definition" or DTD supplies Web browsers with information about which (X)HTML specification your web page is built upon, which instructs the Browser how to render the page for viewing.

In the example captioned above a standards compliant browsers will interpret your web page as an HTML 4.01 document, and because it is marked as "Transitional," it will display it in "quirks mode," meaning that the browser will forgo the strict standards mode, and display your page like it would be displayed in older "non-strict" browsers, while still supporting any tags developed after IE 4, Netscape 4 and others.

On the contrary, the following DOCTYPE declaration tells the standards compliant browsers that your web page should be displayed in strict compliance with the DOCTYPE declaration.

< !DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" >

A complete list of recommended DTDs can be found at the W3C Website.

If you leave the DOCTYPE out, the browsers automatically switch to "quirks mode," therefore, it is important to include the DOCTYPE declaration on every web page that you build in order for it to be rendered correctly.

If your Web pages render well in FireFox at present you probably will not encounter any major problems in IE 7 other than minor adjustments here and there. However, I think a realistic designer should at least make a meaningful attempt to follow W3C guidelines for it is the correct way forward.

Do it now so that you will ready for the future...re-designs and total overhauls are a time consuming and painful process. A process, which becomes much easier if your initial design incorporated structurally clean and modular (X)HTML with CSS compliance.

About The Author:

James Opiko writes for http://www.afroarticles.com/ . Get free Online Coding Tools -
http://www.clubafrika.com/webmaster-tools/coding/PHP-NukeTools.shtml/webmaster-tools/coding/ PHP-NukeTools.shtml
Audio Code Generator Software -
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for your website, emails & newsletters.

How To Improve Web Site Conversion Rates

By Salihu Ibrahim

Do you know your conversion rates? Conversion rate is the number of visitors to your site that take the desired action against the total number of visitors in a particular period or time. Research has shown that 60% of websites do not know their conversion rates. Then how do you improve your site's performance if you do not know your conversion rates? What do you take into consideration when making changes to your site's design? What do you do when you have plenty of visitors yet very few of them take the desired action? What do you want your visitors to do? How are they going to do it? What is the next step for your visitor after taking the desired action? These and other questions can easily be answered if some efforts are made towards tracking and calculating websites' conversion rates.

Converting your visitor is the ultimate aim of any website. Making the visitor to take the desired action is the fulfillment of a process that started from wherever the visitor clicked to come to your site. The desired action could be;

1. Sales


2. Subscribing to your newsletter or book-marking a page


3. Taking a survey


4. Downloading a software or ebook


5. Clicking on a link


6. Going through the process (that is, clicking from page to page ) before clicking on the order button


7. Etc

Most of the time we think conversion starts when the visitor lands on our Site. But conversion actually starts from wherever the visitor first locates our site. How the site was located. What description the visitor sees before clicking to your site or what recommendation or word of mouth brought the visitor to your site. This pre-conversion state is what to a large extent, can determine whether conversion actually takes place or not. This is what I call the keyword-title description-landing page formula. This formula is explained in my free ebook "Google Adwords Made Easy". You can download this free ebook at home base business ideas site.

What enables conversion to take place.

A visitor landing at your site should immediately feel comfortable with your site. First impression as they say matters a lot. For conversion to take place you must hold the visitor's attention once he lands on your site. Some of the points to note that make for easy conversion are:

1. Your website should load fast. The next site is a click away. If your site loads slowly your visitor clicks away and you have lost a potential customer. Usually, graphics, animations, are the cause of slow loading pages. Your can use some software, available free on the internet, to reduce the size of your graphics so that they load fast.
2. Your site should have a professional look about it. It should at first glance portray a quality site. This adds a little bit of credibility to the site. The site is then seen as a serious site.
3. State your case quickly. Let your visitor know what your site is about in a few words. Don't go rambling about your achievements. That can come later. Give the visitor what he is looking for.


4. Arrange your content in an easy to understand way. Whether you are using Tables or CSS for site design, make sure your content is arranged in such a way that the visitor moves from one section of the site to another without confusion or frustration. If you are catering to different kinds of visitors, demarcate your site or page clearly showing these different sections for visitors.


5. Include your Privacy Policy, Phone Numbers, About Us information on every page of your site. This builds some element of trust. Visitors may not click to these pages but the fact that they are there builds some credibility.


6. Do not irritate your visitors with bad grammar or typos. Check and crosscheck your content. Ask somebody to read through your content and point out grammatical errors and typos. These kinds of errors portray a site as unserious and therefore suspect.


7. If you must use banners use them sparingly. Do not allow your banners to distract your visitors from the desired action to be taken. Banners are been clicked on less and less these days.

Having taken care of all of the above, your site is set to present your visitors with your carefully packaged offer. You begin by getting to know your present conversion rates. It is only logical that before any action is taken to improve conversion rates, the present conversion rates are known.

What is your website's conversion rates.

There are many actions a site may desire a visitor to take once he lands at the site. It is the conversion rates of these desired actions that you want to calculate. Lets look at some the typical conversion rates that need to be calculated and what can be done to improve them.

THE SALES CONVERSION RATE.

This gives you an idea of how many visitors are buying your product out of the total number of visitors that visit you site.

The sales conversion rate = number who bought / total number of visitors x 100

So if you have about 10000 visitors in the month and out of that , 350 bought your product, your conversion rate is

350 / 10000 x 100 = 3.5%

This means that for every 200 visitor that land at your site 7 will buy your product.

How to improve the sales conversion rate:

1. Make navigation through your site to your order page so simple a ten year old can find it.
2. Make bold call to action. Example, BUY NOW, or ORDER HERE. Put it near the top, at the middle and near the bottom of you sales page.
3. If you offer free shipping indicate this at your home page and prominently on your sales page. Research has shown that free shipping is the second most important consideration for buyers apart from price.
4. Your web page should load fast. Imagine a potential customer clicking to your order page with the intention to buy only to be frustrated by a slow loading page. The importance of fast loading pages cannot be over-emphasized. Some of the ways to reduce loading time are:

   i. Reduce the number of graphics on your page. Apart from the number, you can also reduce the size of the graphics. There are a number of software you can use to reduce the size of your graphics.

   ii. Always specify the dimensions of your graphics in your html coding. In your IMG tag be sure to specify the width and height of your graphics. This makes it easy for the web browser to load the page because it doesn't have to figure out the dimensions of the graphics.

5. Experiment with different colors on your pages. Measure and track the result of any little change you make. It has been reported that change in the color of a page layout increased conversion rate.
6. Do not use Pop-ups for displaying your vital information. For example, your shipping rates. Though Pop-ups can be effective in drawing attention to vital information, it is not worth taking the chance. With all the free Popup blockers offered by most toolbars and software companies it will be counter productive to display your vital information in a Popup only to have it blocked. Displaying information in Pop-ups could seriously reduce your conversion rate. Instead use banners that will display a strong call to action.
7. Include a progress indicator on each page to your order page so that your customer knows at what stage he is. You can number the pages or steps and clearly describe each step so that the customer can easily move back and forth through your pages.
8. Make it automatic so that when the shipping info is same as the billing info, the customer doesn't have to fill the same information twice.
9. Because of credit card concerns, not all customers will want to order using credit cards. Offer other forms of payment, check, fax, phone etc.
10. Display critical information at the check out page. Information like warranties, guarantees, shipping costs, testimonials, return policies, after sales service, support service etc.
11. Develop a system whereby if a visitor abandons the checkout process for whatever reason after providing an email address, your system immediately emails the visitor offering an incentive to tell why the process was not completed. This happened to me. I abandoned purchase when the order page could not load due to my unsteady internet connection. I promptly received an email from the company. I later went back to the site to purchase the item.
12. If you are selling tangible product use high quality pictures. Since the visitor cannot touch or smell the product, it is essential to provide a top quality picture that will look like the physical product.
13. Include the number of days the customer will have to wait for the order. If possible provide tracking of the order. All these help to make the customer comfortable and close the sale.

THE SUBSCRIPTION CONVERSION RATE.

This is simply calculated by dividing the number of subscriptions (subscribers) by the total number of visitors for that period and multiplying by 100. This gives the percentage of visitors that subscribed.

Example, if the total number of visitors in the month is 9000 and 300 visitors subscribed. Your conversion rate would be 300 / 9000 x 100 = 3.3 %

Getting visitors to subscribe to your newsletter or ezine depends on where the visitor had seen the offer to subscribe. If you are promoting a subscription page, then your description must be enticing enough to lure surfers to visit your page. That is, if they are coming from search engines,ads etc. Most times people will only give their email address when they are sure they will get some quality stuff from your newsletter. If they are already at your site and it is a quality site then you may require little persuasion to get them to subscribe.

How to improve the subscription conversion rate.

1. Make sure your privacy policy is clearly stated.
2. Highlight the benefits of your newsletter to the subscriber. State plainly the high points of your newsletter. Direct your visitor to a good issue in your archives.
3. Provide a valuable free gift. Example a free ebook or report.
4. If you are providing a free ebook or report, tell the visitor what is special about your own because there are a thousand and one free ebooks and reports on the internet so why should yours be different. For me I usually get a high conversion rate from surfers seeing the articles I post at various article sites on the internet. They become interested when they see the quality of the articles.
5. Change the position of your subscription form. From upper left to upper right. Then recalculate the conversion rate. Compare the result of the two positions. Try other positions until you get the position where conversion is highest.

DOWNLOAD CONVERSION RATE.

This rate shows you how many of your visitors (in percentage) are downloading your software or ebook or whatever you have presented for download. It is obtained by dividing the number of downloads by the number of visitors to your download page. Example, you had 4000 visitors to your download page for the month and 300 downloaded your software your conversion rate is:

300 / 4000 x 100 = 7.5%

you will need to install a script at your site to monitor the download. You can get a free download monitor script at http://www.focalmedia.net/

How to improve your download conversion rate:

1. Write a compelling copy emphasizing the benefits to your visitors of whatever you are offering for download. Then make a bold call to action .example, Download Now or Start Download.


2. Download should start with the first or second click. That is do not make the download page more than two clicks away from the introductory page.


3. Make it clear to the visitor that it is a free, trial or demo download. You could list the features and benefits of the download in a Popup window. That is the popup is activated when a link is clicked and not by itself.


4. Put your download button at the top of your page with the main menu. Alternatively, you can put it at the left hand side navigation links.


5. If it is a free report in PDF make the download start when the download link is clicked. It is some times frustrating when PDF download opens up in the browser.

CONVERSION RATE FOR CLICKING ON A LINK.

Sometimes a web page is written where the main aim is for visitors to click on a particular link. The link could be an affiliate link, or a link to another page or even an email link. You have to install a script to monitor these clicks. There are many click trackers on the internet . You can get a free click tracker script at http://www.focalmedia.net/ . The conversion rate is the number of clicks on the link divided by the number of visitors to the page. Example, if the total number of visitors are 6000 and the number of clicks 1500. Then the conversion rate will be 1500 / 6000 x 100 = 25%

How to improve this conversion rate:

1. One effective way to improve conversion rate for clicking on a link is to put the link in the content. This is called in content link. The text link flows with your write up. Visitors are more likely to click on such a link than one that is not in content.
2. The text link should clearly indicate to the visitor what to do or what to expect after clicking on the link. You are sure to get a more favorable response this way.
3. If the link is an affiliate link do not use the long affiliate links provided by affiliate merchants. They are often long and too obvious get clicked less times. Get a script that will shorten the affiliate link you can download a script at home business ideas. Make your links bold.

CONVERSION RATE FOR AFFILIATE SITES.

Affiliate sites need two conversion rates to succeed. One on the affiliate's site, the other on the merchant's site. The first is within the affiliate's control while the second is not. So to succeed in affiliate marketing the affiliate has to choose a merchant with good conversion rates. The merchant should show proof of conversion rates. Or you can calculate how many visitors you sent to the merchant's site and how many converted (that is, resulted into sales).

Conversion on affiliate sites largely depends on traffic. As a matter of fact, you need a lot of traffic to succeed as an affiliate. With little traffic your conversion will be almost nonexistent and there will not be enough data to show a consistent conversion rate. For example you might make a sale after 10 visitors to your site and make the next sale after 2000 visitors. This is not consistent. The first sale after 10 visitors might have been a motivated buyer. Which means you were lucky. You need more than luck to succeed in affiliate business.

How to improve conversion rates on affiliate sites:

1. Build traffic to your site.
2. Effective pre-selling. An affiliate tries to persuade a visitor to click on an affiliate link. He has to pre-sell the product properly. Emphasizing the benefits of the product to the visitor. Building on the emotions of the visitor and leading him to click. Research has shown that most buying decisions are influenced by emotions.


3. Get your visitor to subscribe to your newsletter. With the traffic you are generating you do not want to miss out on the other visitors who do not buy. Provide an opportunity for them to subscribe so that you can still pre-sell again and again through your ezine or newsletter.


4. Provide very few choices for your visitor. Do no clutter your page with all kinds of offers. This makes the visitor to be undecided and may lead to frustration. Promote one or two product per page. Write your best review of the product.


5. Own the product you promote. This way you are able to give real life experiences about the product or service. It more believable when writing reviews from experience and this increases conversion rates.

CONCLUSION:

Calculating your conversion rates would be meaningless if you cannot determine whether you are improving or not. Stick to a period of test and be consistent. Example, one month, two weeks etc. Whichever is suitable for you. Calculate for that period. Compare with the previous period or the next period. Make changes to your pages and test again. By testing you will know what works.

Also if there is any industry standard conversion rate (especially for the sales conversion rate), compare your rate to the industry standard. By comparing you will know whether you are doing well or not. Or you can set objectives for yourself. Set a reasonable conversion rate that you want to attain within a certain period and go for it.

About the Author:

Salihu Ibrahim, has been earning his living online since 2000. One of his sites at http://www.autoresponders4all.com/ offers completely free autoresponder service for webmasters to put their businesses on autopilot.

Visitor Traffic Statistics 101

By Cherie Davidson

As we all know, visitor traffic is crucial to the success of every Website. If you do not know how many views your pages get, how can you know if anyone is seeing your site, product or service? With an online business, you can not afford to guess at how effective your marketing, content, message or Website design is.

Ideally, you need to know what pages are viewed, how long the visitor stays on any given page and what page they click to next. Also, if you can see the keywords they used to search for you, or see what link they clicked to get to your site (referral link), you have great information for SEO (search engine optimization) of your site content and keywords. This is all part of Web analytics. The more you know about site analytics, the better prepared you will be to get the most out of your site traffic and visitor usage. Read through these basics and you will be ready to go look for an effective visitor traffic reporting service, find the best features for the price, and boost your site's effectiveness.

Who are your visitors?

You spend many hours identifying your target market. Through SEO, you spend even more time, and often money, to focus your keywords, search indexing and content for this market. You devote yourself to find the optimal visitors by geography, interest, demographics and other important criteria, all for one purpose ... to get the attention of potential customers or clients.

Once you know your target market, you need to know if your efforts are effective. You do that by tracking your site visitor statistics. Web analytics analyze your site traffic and break down the data into usable information reports. Visitor stats you need for the best tracking include how many total visits ("hits" on your site pages, which means the total number of views by everyone who visits your site), unique page views (views of any given page by the same visitor), and geographic location of your unique visitors.

The advantage of geographic location is that you can monitor where your visitors are coming from. For instance, DogWidgets.com (note: fictional company) began by selling to one region in the US but was getting traffic from Canada and Germany. Owner saw that marketing focus was needed for a more specific geographic area.

What are your visitors searching for?

This area of analytics is a terrific opportunity for SEO and refinement of your keyword strategies. With a good tracking service, you will be able to get a report on search engine keyword usage and clickstream (click path) data. In other words, the report will show a breakdown of the keywords your visitors used to find you as well as the search engine they used. This information is invaluable as it spells out exactly what your visitors are looking for, how effective your keywords are, and lets you know what search engines have you listed. If your chosen service provides it, you can click the report link to see what your page rank is for that engine, in real-time.

A good analytics site will also provide the clickstream data, which will show you the path your visitor's took inside your site, from page to page. This data is invaluable for marketing your site and product or service. To demonstrate, the owner of DogWidget.com has been trying to decide what areas to focus on. Owner's dog widgets have a wide variety of applications, and Owner
sees through the keyword report that the search terms are all over the spectrum. There is no focus. This tells Owner that a marketing strategy is needed to grab visitors that want specific dog widgets.

When do they visit my site?

You will also want to monitor your peak traffic hours. This is very easy with a good analytics report. The more detail your reports show, the more information you have to work with. You should be able to have the data on your site visits broken down by year, month, week, day and hour. This is important information, but you really need more than just "visitor totals." You should look for this time breakdown by page views (total views of every page on your site) and by unique visitors (pages viewed by each individual visitor).

To show the importance, let's consider our dog widget site scenario: DogWidget.com sells a variety of multi-colored widgets for dogs. Owner notices through tracking reports that there is a much higher page view of the Outdoor widgets on Friday mornings. The Outdoor page seems to compel the highest number of clicks to the order page. No one clicks from the Rainy Day widgets page to the order page. So now Owner has the information to rethink the Rainy Day page, and to begin focusing more advertising to Outdoor topics, advertisers and markets.

Where are visitors coming from?

When you begin marketing your site, whether it is banner and link exchanges, classified ads, posting articles, press releases or pay per click advertising, you need to know what is working for you and what is wasting your time. Referral link reports help narrow this down and allow you to see what active links on the Internet are being used to bring site visitors. For instance, let's see how our enthusiastic and dedicated dog widget owner has been advertising.

Being on a shoestring, Owner decided to try SEO and send out weekly press releases. DogWidget.com has been indexed by several major search engines, keywords have been refined thanks to the keyword usage reports. Using the referral reports Owner sees that the SEO is beginning to roll along nicely and is even picking up a little momentum. Now for the press releases. Owner sends out a new press release each week for two months. Without the referral link report, Owner would be in the dark as to whether the links on the releases were being used, unless it was a paid distribution service (and that info is only for one release on that one site).

With the referral report, Owner was able to send out press releases at no cost, and see what sites picked them up and posted them through the clicks on the contact links. So the press release about Vacation dog widgets got a lot of attention, excellent. That was time well spent. So now, Owner focus can shift so efforts are optimized.

Why is all this so important?

I must answer this question with a question: do you know how your site has been doing? If you do not have reports to give you the real-time traffic information necessary to gauge visitor performance, how can you know how your site is really doing? Are you thinking some decent sales is doing well? Or because you get nice feedback, the site is ok? If this is the case, you are settling for inferior results.

This is not a solid way to manage any business, and a Website is business. Why would you want to settle for "ok" when you can get the tools at little expense that can make your site soar? Our Owner wanted to quit the "day job" and make a real living from DogWidgets.com, and with diligence and Web analytics, there is a good chance Owner will succeed, and make a lot of dogs happy at the same time! Please don't settle for "ok." Take your site to the next level. All it takes is having the right information to work with. To paraphrase an old idiom, Visitor Knowledge is Site Success.

How do they use my Website?

Your visitors are valuable. The visitors that buy your product or service are priceless; they are the key element to success. You want to make them happy and keep them coming back. You also want them to spread the word about you. And yes, Web analytics can improve this as well. By knowing how visitors are actually using your site, which pages they visit, how long they view the pages they visit, what pages compel them to continue inside the site (clickstream), and what pages they use to leave your site (exit page) will tell you a great deal.

For instance, back to our dog widget site. Owner sees that the Uses for Widgets page seems to hold the visitor longer than other information pages. It was written with humor and has a fun, clean look. Wow, a winner page. However, Rainy Day Widget shows as a big exit page. Not a good page, it appears to kill the site visits. Ok, Owner knows that Rainy Day page needs some redesign and rewriting fast.

Don't let your Website stall like a rainy day widget. As with any business, a Website is needing continual marketing and refinement to stay focused and on target. You need to keep on top of your markets, keep fresh, interesting and compelling content, keep your site available to those who want your product or service. Staying alive on the Web means you need visitors ... visitors who are looking for what you have to offer. With good Web analytics you have the tools you need to put your site in front of your target market, increase your ROI and find success on the Internet. And isn't this why you have a Website?

About the Author:

Cherie Davidson works as content and marketing manager for VisiStat.com. VisiStat is a detailed, real-time site traffic and Web analytics report service that is focused on ease of use and user-friendliness. VisiStat's goal is to help site entrepreneurs make the most of their site marketing and search engine optimization efforts -- to be a virtual "goldmine" for marketing. Learn more at VisiStat.com.

Does Your Website Induce Seizures?

By Tim Knox

Q: We promote our web site in all our ad campaigns, but according to my website statistics program, we are getting very few visitors who click past the first page. The site has a cool Flash intro page that the designer said would impress visitors, but it doesn't seem to be working. What can we do to get people to spend more time on the site?
-- Christopher O.

A: The first thing you should do, Christopher, is find that designer and beat the living Flash out of him. It won't increase the time visitors spend on your website, but it will make you feel better after you've read this column.

What your designer thought would appeal to visitors is probably the very thing that is driving them away. A Flash introduction page (Macromedia Flash is a software program used to create animations for Web pages) may seem "cool" to you, but from a website visitor's point of view, they can be about as appealing as sitting in the front row of a Pokemon movie with four hundred screaming six year olds (and here comes the segue, folks).

In December, 1997, during an episode of Pokemon, the popular Japanese TV cartoon that has spawned everything from movies to action figures to lunch boxes, a scene featured a rocket explosion that flashed red and blue lights in rapid succession. After the episode, over 600 children were taken to hospitals complaining of seizures, blurred vision, headaches, dizziness, and nausea.

Any adult who has ever been exposed to Pokemon for more than two seconds can understand the nausea, but the seizures at first baffled doctors. Scientists ultimately came to attribute the mass reaction to "photosensitive seizures," which are brought on by exposure to certain visual stimuli like rapidly flashing lights on a TV screen. Remember when your mom told you not to sit so close to the TV or you'd ruin your eyes? Turns out she knew what she was talking about. Who knew?

The event caused such concern that Japanese broadcasters and health officials met to discuss ways to prevent future occurrences of bad-cartoon induced illnesses. They established guidelines for the broadcast of flashing images: no image may flicker faster than three times per second; flashing images should be displayed for no more than two seconds; and stripes, whorls, and concentric circles should not take up the largest portion of a TV screen.

It's my humble opinion that these rules should apply to websites as well. I've been in the Internet design business for nearly a decade and I have been witness to numerous websites
that could induce photosensitive seizures in blind moles. It sounds like your website might be suffering from a similar ailment.

If visitor's are not clicking past your fancy Flash intro page, you don't have to be a genius to figure out that therein lies your problem. Remove the Flash intro page for a few weeks to
see if your website's click-through rate improves and the number of page views increase. "Click-through rate" refers to the number of visitors who click links on your homepage to go deeper into your site. "Page views" refers to the overall number of web pages that were viewed by visitors. If click-through and page view rates improve, you'll know that the Flash intro was your problem.

Here are a few other things you can do to make sure your site offers visitors a pleasant - and seizure free - browsing experience.

Sit In The Visitor's Chair The best way to make sure your website is as user friendly as it can be, is to sit down at a computer and approach your site from a typical visitor's point of view. Try to imagine that you are seeing the site for the first time. If you are unable to do this, have a friend who has never seen the site click around and offer comments while you take notes.

Have your friend assess the following points: Is the site appealing to the eye? Are the colors pleasing and complimentary? Is the site easy to navigate? Are the topical categories and subcategories in logical order? Is it easy to find what you're looking for? Does the site have a search engine to make finding things easier? Is every feature of the site less than two or three clicks away? If the answer to any or all of these points is no, you have some work to do.

Don't Dictate Technology One sure fire way to repel web site visitors is to require that they have special browser plug-ins or 3rd party add-on browser software installed to view your site. Dictating that the user download and install software is not your place and users will resent you(and your business) for it. Visiting your site should be an effortless pleasure, not a technological chore.

Don't Make Them Wait If your homepage takes longer than 20 seconds to download (appear in the visitor's browser) you are losing visitors, period. Gratuitous animation, large graphics, poorly formatted HTML, bad page layout, and a number of other factors can increase download time. You might have the greatest web site in the world, but if it takes ten minutes to download no one will ever see it.

The lessons to be learned, then, are threefold. One: a website should be designed to satisfy the visitor's needs, not to pacify the site designer's ego.

Two: visitors to a business website are not there to be awed and entertained. They are there looking for information, and unless you give it to them quickly and effortlessly, they will go elsewhere to get it.

And Three: for better mental and physical health avoid Pokemon at all costs.

Here's to your success.

About The Author:

Tim serves as the president and CEO of three successful technology companies and is the founder of DropshipWholesale.net, an online organization dedicated to the success of online and eBay entrepreneurs
http://www.prosperityandprofits.com
http://www.dropshipwholesale.net
http://www.30dayblueprint.com

Is Your Website Credit Card Friendly?

By Tim Knox

In my last column I discussed the process of credit card enabling your brick-and-mortar business. I pointed out that research has shown that accepting credit cards can help increase revenue and enhance cash flow. I also pointed out that you may have to look beyond your local bank for help in getting things set up. This week we will look at setting up an online payment system for your business website. If you think hooking up a brick-and-mortar location with a credit card system stymies most bankers, try asking them how to do it on your website.

If you'll recall, the question that spurred this topic came from a lady who went to her local bank for help in setting up a credit card acceptance system for her business and her banker wasn't very knowledgeable on the subject. I pointed out that her banker's ignorance of the subject probably wasn't a reflection on his skills as a banker, but a reflection on the compartmentalization of the credit card aspect of banking.

The fact is, most banks can provide you with the merchant account needed to accept credit card payments, but beyond that have little to do with the process. Even larger banks may only have a single person on staff who is tasked as the "credit card expert" and if that person ever goes on vacation, you're pretty much out of luck (voice of experience talking here, folks).

I have helped many clients set up online credit card processing systems and more than once I've had to sit down with the bank issuing the merchant account and educate them on how online payment systems work. Don't believe me? This is a direct quote (here's the Bible, here's my hand) from the bank employee who was in charge of processing internet merchant account applications, "When someone pays online how do they swipe the credit card in their computer."

Much like a brick and mortar credit card processing system, you will need the following to accept credit cards on your website: (1) an electronic shopping cart system that allows the customer to select products and checkout when ready; (2) a payment gateway service to get approval or declination of the credit card; (3) a credit card processor who will process the transaction; and (4) an internet merchant account issued by an acquiring bank in which processed funds are deposited.

We covered most of these elements last week. Here's a quick refresher for those who missed the basics, then we'll talk about a shopping cart system.

Payment Gateway Service: The payment gateway service comes into play when a customer submits their credit card information to the webpage form. Think of the gateway service as the middleman in the process. The website's shopping cart checkout system electronically submits the credit card to the gateway service who then routes the information to the processor for approval. Depending on the reply from the processor, the gateway service will return an approval or declination for the purchase. This entire process takes just seconds to perform.

Credit Card Processor: The credit card processor is an electronic data center that processes the credit card transactions coming from the gateway company, ensures that the charge is valid, then settles the funds in your merchant account.

Internet Merchant Account: An Internet merchant account is a bank or financial institution account in which funds from online sales are deposited. Merchant accounts are usually issued by banks who are associated with the major credit card services like Visa and MasterCard. Be aware that many banks will not grant merchant accounts to Internet merchants as they are often categorized as "high risk ventures." This policy varies widely and in the end, the granting of the merchant account will come down to economics from the bank's point of view. If the bank sees even the smallest iota of risk, you will not be granted the account. Fortunately, the growth of online sales has given rise to an entire industry of merchant service bureaus that will grant you a merchant account and everything else you need to accept online payments. The fees are usually higher, but it's better than not having an online payment system at all.

Shopping Cart System. To accept online payments you must have what's called a "shopping cart system" that allows your customer to choose and purchase products. Adding a shopping cart system to your website can be simple or complex, cheap or very expensive. It depends on the product you're selling and the options you wish to offer your customers. As in everything, you get what you pay for.

A shopping cart system typically consists of three components: a product catalog, the shopping cart, and a checkout/payment system. The product catalog is your inventory component and displays the items you have for sale on the website. The checkout/payment system is the part of the program that allows your customers to "add this to my cart," and the checkout/payment system is the component that allows the customer to checkout and pay for their purchase.

There is a wide variety of shopping cart software on the market and the price is dependent on the features you want. Shopping cart systems range from simple HTML form insertions to full- blown catalog and inventory systems like those used by Amazon or Dell.

You can spend from zero to tens of thousands of dollars. Some of them you can set up on your site yourself while others should be set up by someone who knows what they're doing.

You can get a free Paypal.com shopping cart system which is the most simplistic in nature, but the easiest to implement. Using Paypal also alleviates the need for a bank merchant account because everything is handled by Paypal, for a fee of course. You insert HTML forms into your website code and when an item is purchased.

There are also numerous online companies who will assist in the setup of your ecommerce / credit card system. These companies charge several hundred to several thousand dollars for their services, so it would be wise for you to have an idea of exactly what you need before calling them into play.

Customer submits credit card. The site sends the transaction to the gateway. The gateway sends the info to the processor. The processor contacts the issuing bank of the customers credit card. The issuing bank returns the result of the processor. The processor routs the result to the gate. The gateway passes the result to the website. The website displays the result.

One thing to remember when setting up an ecommerce system on your site is this: online it's all about security and privacy. Though online credit card processing has been around for years there are still many people who are uncomfortable giving their credit card number online. These are the same folks that do not hesitate to give their credit card number over the phone to a complete stranger or hand their credit card to a waiter who disappears with it for ten minutes. Online credit card processing is much less susceptible to fraud and abuse than either telephone processing or giving it to a waiter.

Eighty-five percent of internet users surveys said that a lack of security made them uncomfortable sending credit card information over the Web.

It's up to you to instill a sense of security and make the customer comfortable shoving their card into their computer.

Here's to your success.

About The Author:

Tim serves as the president and CEO of three successful technology companies and is the founder of DropshipWholesale.net, an online organization dedicated to the success of online and eBay entrepreneurs
http://www.prosperityandprofits.com
http://www.dropshipwholesale.net
http://www.30dayblueprint.com

Making A Good First Impression

By Trey Pennewell

You only get once chance to make a first impression. This is true with all things in life, and it is true for an online business.

The reason why your first impression on the Internet is so very important is because most visitors and potential customers will only give your website a 15 second overview, before deciding whether to stay or to move one. Your homepage is how you get your foot in the door with surfers. If your homepage has a poor appearance or is not user friendly, your visitor will likely move on to one of your competitors.

You have seen poorly designed websites and homepages. They are the ones with the annoying pop ups that you cannot get away from, the ones that make it difficult to find vital information that you are looking for, and the ones that are fraught with grammatical and spelling errors. I recently saw a website that had a side scroll window that I could not close. The worst thing about it was that the window overlapped the text on the homepage that I was trying to read. It cut off the first few letters of each sentence. This may not have been so bad if I was able to close the scrolling window, but I could not.

I have also seen websites that make it so difficult to find prices, membership information, contact information, and so forth, so much so that I simply gave up and went to a different site. I left the poorly designed site and went to a competitor's website, even though I liked the first website's product the best.

Perhaps it is because of my line of work, but nothing stands out to me more than poorly written content. Whether it is grammatical errors or spelling errors, I cannot help but focus on them. When I see a website where multiple words are misspelled, I usually leave, because poor grammar and spelling gives me the impression that the Webmaster does not care enough about his website to proofread it. In my mind, I cannot help but think that if the Webmaster doesn't proofread the content, he or she will probably not be very detail oriented when it comes to meeting my customer needs. Remember that you only get one chance to make that first impression with potential customers and to get those customers to bookmark your website.

Now, before you start thinking that I am the spelling police of the Internet, I completely understand how easy it is to make minor errors. However, this is your business, and ultimately your homepage is your best advertisement to potential customers. In this regard, there is no room for errors. You need to make your homepage as customer friendly and professional as possible. With so many competitors on the Internet fighting for customers, you need to exercise control over the areas that you can control.

Correct spelling and good grammar is perhaps one of the simplest things that you can control, when you are trying to create a professional image with your potential customers.

Not everyone feels comfortable with his or her writing skills. Others simply do not have the time or desire to write their website content or free reprint articles. Luckily, there are many
writers who are eager to write your content for you. Many of these writers have years of experience and have written many articles, sales pages, and other types of content.

Employing a writer who can provide you with quality, well-written articles is especially important for those who use English as a second language. I have read and edited articles written by people whose first language was not English, and there have been many spelling and grammatical errors. Even those who reside in the United Kingdom or Australia may want to consider to whom they are marketing. If you are marketing to an American audience, then a U.K. Webmaster may want to seek out an American writer, since there are many minor differences in the dialect. This is also true for Australian webmasters.

The worst foreign language offenders are those who rely on automated translation programs. If, for example, a Webmaster writes an article or site content in German and uses automated translation software, the words will be translated, but the readability of the copy will be lost. I once edited articles for a person, whose first language was not English, and he had used one of these automated software translation programs. Even I had a difficult time understanding what some of the sentences were trying to say. If you need assistance translating business documents, articles or sales copy from one language to another, may we recommend: http://www.linkexchange.etranslate.com/

The bottom line is that you want to turn your website visitors into customers. To do this, you need to make a good first impression. It is difficult to know what exact marketing technique will attract customers to your website. But, it is easy to make sure that your website is easy-to-navigate, easy-to-read, and most importantly, that it has a professional appearance. If your text is misspelled and poorly written, many customers will turn away from your site, and they will look for another website whose webmaster took the time to ensure a professional appearance for his or her website.

About the Author:

Trey Pennewell is a ghost writer at http://www.thePhantomWriters.com. On September 9, 2005, TPW had more than 50 Pre-Written ghosted articles available for purchase on a wide variety of topics. Custom ghost writing is also available on a job-by-job basis for a variety of writing needs. If you need to have very specialized ghost writing work done on your behalf, contact us to see if any of our three dozen ghost writers can meet your needs.

Learn What 98% Of Targeted Visitors Do On Your Website

By Tony Simpson

Getting a Targeted Visitor to a website is a waste of time and money if you've got no idea what 98% of them do when they get there.

I'm assuming that if you have a website selling products that your conversion rate is at least 2%. So you should know at least what 2 out of every 100 targeted visitors do and that's make a purchase.

But do you know what they did before they made a purchase and if they'd have purchased sooner, if it were not for some issue they had with your website?

How much do you know about what 98 out of 100 or 98% of your targeted visitors are doing? If the answer is a big fat zero, you're throwing money down the drain and missing a golden opportunity to learn from every targeted visitor not just 2% of them.

If you could discover a way to stop and ask every targeted visitor why they're leaving your website and they'd give you a reply, would you be interested?

Sure you would, what website owner wouldn't. OK if you said No, then you'd better stop reading this now. Of course no such way exists to stop and ask every leaving targeted visitor. Until it does the only way to learn from a targeted visitor is ask them to complete a survey or learn about their behaviour on a website using targeted visitor tracking.

If you're using just web hosting stats to tell you what your targeted visitor is doing then you're putting yourself at a very big disadvantage. So you know what countries your traffic comes from, what URL's referred them, the total number of pages viewed each day and what part of the day gets most traffic. Well that's better than nothing.

If you have a good web hosting stats package you may even know how much time a targeted visitor group spends on your site. From this at least you know how many visitors found your site interesting enough to stay longer than 30 seconds.

But do you know exactly which pages are viewed each day, what page links are clicked, or if running Adsense Ads, what Ad your targeted visitor clicked on?

If you're still wondering exactly how tracking what a targeted visitor does on you website can help you, let me explain.

By tracking what pages get the most views day by day, you can tell what pages a targeted visitor finds interesting.

If you change the content of a page you can track how many more, or less times the page is viewed. By learning what content interests a visitor you can supply more of it rather than guessing what they're interested in. More interesting relevant content means potentially more visitors.

By tracking changes in the navigation to a page you can tell if the page then gets more visits.

Pages could have content that a targeted visitor would find interesting but your existing navigation may be what's stopping them from finding them. By making a change to the navigation and tracking page views for that page over the following days, you can compare the results with what you had before the change was made.

By tracking any Adsense Ads you know which Ads are being clicked on and can therefore increase your exposure for those Ads.

You do this by creating similar content pages that will feature that type of Ad. This gives you the opportunity to get more Adsense revenue.

By tracking a targeted visitor returning to your website after clicking away you can judge how interesting they find your website.

How much do you know about what your targeted visitor does on your website before they made a purchase?

Tracking tells you what links a purchaser clicked on, what pages they viewed before they purchased and even if they came from one of your own Ads.

It's an established fact that most people don't make a purchase on the first visit. They will have a look around a website, then come back hours or days later, perhaps even several more times before they make a purchase.

It's possible to track all this activity and even have a report emailed to you after your targeted visitor buys.

Armed with this sort of information you can see how often the purchaser returned before they made a purchase, on what dates and what pages they viewed.

If they kept coming back to the same page they could have found something they were unsure about. This gives you the chance to take a look at that page, experiment with some changes and track the results.

If you think targeted visitor tracking is only within the reach of big corporate websites with big budgets you'd be mistaken. You can implement all the targeted visitor tracking I've described on any website, for a single payment of less than $120 and no monthly fees.

A targeted visitor tracking system that enabled you to make just minor improvements to your website could pay for itself in 17 days!

Let's say you get 45 targeted visitors to your website every day and 2% of them buy a product costing $47. Your website earnings would be 45 x 2% x $47 or $42.30 per day.

Now let's assume by using targeted visitor tracking you learn enough from your visitor behaviour to make some improvements to the content and navigation on your website.

Let's further assume your changes improve your website conversion rate from 2% to 2.1% and increase the number of targeted visitors from 45 per day to 50 per day because they find your content more relevant and interesting.

Doing the same math's again but with 50 targeted visitors and 2.1% purchasing the same $47 product, the website earnings would be 50 x 2.1% x $47 or $49.35 per day.

This means the minor improvements made from what you learned from your targeted visitor tracking have increased your website earnings from $42.30 per day to $49.35 per day, an increase of $7.05 per day.

This means from extra earnings of $7.05 per day and a targeted visitor tracking system costing $120 or less, the system paid for itself in 120/7.05 or 17 days.

In the 2nd part of this article Tracking a Targeted Visitor on Your Website I describe in detail, two systems that any website owner can use for targeted visitor tracking.

Now you have no excuse for gaining access to targeted visitor information you never knew you could and use it to your advantage.

Conclusion

Like many website owners you probably spend time and money getting targeted visitor traffic to your website only to get around 2% making a purchase. But you're pouring money down the drain if you don't learn from the 98% who didn't buy from you.

The only way to learn from a visitor is to ask them, or learn from their behaviour by finding out where they go and what they do on your website. The latter requires targeted visitor tracking systems in place on your website.

Even if what you learned from this targeted visitor tracking enabled you to make only minor improvements to your website, the system could pay for itself in 17 days.

About The Author:

Tony Simpson, Advises on Website Design, Promotion and Optimization. He also offers website design reviews through his Restricted Access Membership which is currently free to join, once you are accepted. The 2nd part of his article entitled "Tracking a Targeted Visitor on Your Website" is here.

Learn What 98% Of Targeted Visitors Do On Your Website

By Tony Simpson

Getting a Targeted Visitor to a website is a waste of time and money if you've got no idea what 98% of them do when they get there.

I'm assuming that if you have a website selling products that your conversion rate is at least 2%. So you should know at least what 2 out of every 100 targeted visitors do and that's make a purchase.

But do you know what they did before they made a purchase and if they'd have purchased sooner, if it were not for some issue they had with your website?

How much do you know about what 98 out of 100 or 98% of your targeted visitors are doing? If the answer is a big fat zero, you're throwing money down the drain and missing a golden
opportunity to learn from every targeted visitor not just 2% of them.

If you could discover a way to stop and ask every targeted visitor why they're leaving your website and they'd give you a reply, would you be interested?

Sure you would, what website owner wouldn't. OK if you said No, then you'd better stop reading this now. Of course no such way exists to stop and ask every leaving targeted visitor. Until it does the only way to learn from a targeted visitor is ask them to complete a survey or learn about their behaviour on a website using targeted visitor tracking.

If you're using just web hosting stats to tell you what your targeted visitor is doing then you're putting yourself at a very big disadvantage. So you know what countries your traffic comes from, what URL's referred them, the total number of pages viewed each day and what part of the day gets most traffic. Well that's better than nothing.

If you have a good web hosting stats package you may even know how much time a targeted visitor group spends on your site. From this at least you know how many visitors found your site interesting enough to stay longer than 30 seconds.

But do you know exactly which pages are viewed each day, what page links are clicked, or if running Adsense Ads, what Ad your targeted visitor clicked on?

If you're still wondering exactly how tracking what a targeted visitor does on you website can help you, let me explain.

By tracking what pages get the most views day by day, you can tell what pages a targeted visitor finds interesting.

If you change the content of a page you can track how many more, or less times the page is viewed. By learning what content interests a visitor you can supply more of it rather than guessing what they're interested in. More interesting relevant content means potentially more visitors.

By tracking changes in the navigation to a page you can tell if the page then gets more visits. Pages could have content that a targeted visitor would find interesting but your existing navigation may be what's stopping them from finding them. By making a change to the navigation and tracking page views for that page over the following days, you can compare the results with what you had before the change was made.

By tracking any Adsense Ads you know which Ads are being clicked on and can therefore increase your exposure for those Ads.

You do this by creating similar content pages that will feature that type of Ad. This gives you the opportunity to get more Adsense revenue.

By tracking a targeted visitor returning to your website after clicking away you can judge how interesting they find your website.

How much do you know about what your targeted visitor does on your website before they made a purchase?

Tracking tells you what links a purchaser clicked on, what pages they viewed before they purchased and even if they came from one of your own Ads.

It's an established fact that most people don't make a purchase on the first visit. They will have a look around a website, then come back hours or days later, perhaps even several more times
before they make a purchase.

It's possible to track all this activity and even have a report emailed to you after your targeted visitor buys.

Armed with this sort of information you can see how often the purchaser returned before they made a purchase, on what dates and what pages they viewed.

If they kept coming back to the same page they could have found something they were unsure about. This gives you the chance to take a look at that page, experiment with some changes and
track the results.

If you think targeted visitor tracking is only within the reach of big corporate websites with big budgets you'd be mistaken. You can implement all the targeted visitor tracking I've described on any website, for a single payment of less than $120 and no monthly fees.

A targeted visitor tracking system that enabled you to make just minor improvements to your website could pay for itself in 17 days!

Let's say you get 45 targeted visitors to your website every day and 2% of them buy a product costing $47. Your website earnings would be 45 x 2% x $47 or $42.30 per day.

Now let's assume by using targeted visitor tracking you learn enough from your visitor behaviour to make some improvements to the content and navigation on your website.

Let's further assume your changes improve your website conversion rate from 2% to 2.1% and increase the number of targeted visitors from 45 per day to 50 per day because they find your content more relevant and interesting.

Doing the same math's again but with 50 targeted visitors and 2.1% purchasing the same $47 product, the website earnings would be 50 x 2.1% x $47 or $49.35 per day.

This means the minor improvements made from what you learned from your targeted visitor tracking have increased your website earnings from $42.30 per day to $49.35 per day, an increase of $7.05 per day.

This means from extra earnings of $7.05 per day and a targeted visitor tracking system costing $120 or less, the system paid for itself in 120/7.05 or 17 days.

In the 2nd part of this article Tracking a Targeted Visitor on Your Website I describe in detail, two systems that any website owner can use for targeted visitor tracking.

Now you have no excuse for gaining access to targeted visitor information you never knew you could and use it to your advantage.

Conclusion

Like many website owners you probably spend time and money getting targeted visitor traffic to your website only to get around 2% making a purchase. But you're pouring money down the drain if you don't learn from the 98% who didn't buy from you.

The only way to learn from a visitor is to ask them, or learn from their behaviour by finding out where they go and what they do on your website. The latter requires targeted visitor tracking systems in place on your website.

Even if what you learned from this targeted visitor tracking enabled you to make only minor improvements to your website, the system could pay for itself in 17 days.

About The Author:

Tony Simpson advises on website design, promotion and optimization. He also offers website design reviews through his Restricted Access Membership which is currently free to join, once you are accepted. The 2nd part of his article entitled "Tracking a Targeted Visitor on Your Website" is at http://www.webpageaddons.com/stp/targetedvisitor2

How To Track All Your Website Traffic For Free

By Louis Allport

Do you know:

* Exactly how many people are visiting your website?
* How long they're staying on your site before they move on?
* Exactly where those visitors are coming from, each day?
* How much of your website traffic is repeat visitors?
* The exact paths people take as they click their way through your website?

Here's what I'm getting at:

If you don't know your visitors, it makes it *very* difficult for you to improve the performance of your website and turn more visitors into customers - AND - get more quality traffic. For the simple reason that you're effectively working blind.

Without knowing how people visit your site and what they do on your site, any attempts at growing your traffic and improving the profitability of your website is working with one armed tied behind your back, at least.

And unfortunately - the web stats that come with your web-hosting are generally not enough these days.

Depending on your web host, chances are you've either got Webalizer, Analog Stats, or AWStats installed on your server. Here's how that software works:

It takes the "raw" (unreadable to the human eye) information your web server stores of everyone that visits and presents this in an easy to understand way.

Unfortunately, due to a number of technical reasons, this information is often presented in quite an inaccurate way.

And in my personal experience, these software packages don't present this information in a particularly helpful way either for someone trying to improve the conversion ratios and profitability of their website.

What I personally do, and what I would suggest you do is use a "Tracking Solution" that accurately tracks and reports all your visitors in an easy to read and understand way. These solutions come in two forms: Software & Services.

Both these options have their pros and cons, but what they both do very well is present exactly what's happening on your website right up to the minute, and in a way that's very helpful to you for making good (and profitable) decisions for your business.

To start with here's a software solution you can install and use for free on your website:

Now before you go and install it, you should of course be familiar with installing software on your server. If you're not comfortable installing software on your website, a tracking service (which I'll come to in a moment) would probably be best for you.

And it's also important to note that installing software on your website can often put more strain on the server. This is particularly true if you're on shared hosting.

I've personally used the following free tracking software and it works well. See what you think. Go to http://www.curve2.com and look for "TrackPro". As I write this, version 2 is in Beta and is downloadable from the site at the following address: http://www.curve2.com/trackpro.php

You'll also find many further free tracking software solutions at http://www.hotscripts.com.

But personally speaking, what I've found works very well and avoids putting any increased strain on my existing websites is using a third party tracking service.

The only things really to worry about when using a third party service are:

* How long will this service be around? (If they stop their service after a year, you wouldn't be able to access your past data and will have to change all your tracking codes on your pages too.)

* What is their privacy policy regarding my web stats? (Are they honest and trustworthy in other words. You don't want the service owners studying and then duplicating your successful business plan.)

Over the past month I've been using ecommStats (http://www.ecommstats.com). Now, this service isn't free, but at this time they give you 50,000 free page views per domain, and depending how busy your site is those page views can last you a very long time.

The service works great and is very easy to add to your pages -- simply add three lines of code at the bottom of each of your pages (you can easily do this with Server Side Includes if you're comfortable with that) and all your visitors get tracked accurately and in great detail.

Alternatively - an entirely free (at this time) and very established service is StatCounter (http://statcounter.com). It even has a rave review from Tucows.com (one of the largest download sites on the internet) which speaks for itself and adds a lot of credibility to the service.

And just in case you're wondering how a free service like StatCounter makes money, well - since it's such a popular service with many webmasters logging in every day (and many I'm sure even more than once a day just like me) that it's made it very easy for them to sell a lot of advertising on their site. They also offer an upgrade to their advanced paid service.

But thinking beyond free services, as your business grows you may choose to upgrade to high end paid services that provide even more in depth information about your visitors...

Services like Urchin (Urchin.com - owned by Google) or Deep Metrix (DeepMetrix.com). However, to help you grow your business to that point you need to keep a close eye on what your visitors are doing and where they're coming from, and free tracking software and services is a great way for you to start to do this.

About the Author:

Louis Allport is an online product developer and marketer. To get a FREE copy of his powerful "Viral PDF Generator" script, visit the following site: http://www.BrandPDF.com

How to Add a Search Engine to Your Site

By Herman Drost

When visitors arrive at your web site you want them to find the information quickly otherwise they will lose patience and move on. A great way achieve this is to add a search engine or search box to your web site. Since most visitors are already familiar with using search engines such as Google, they can easily use the search feature on your site.

In this article I will discuss:

A. The benefits of adding a search engine
B. Types of search service providers
C. Where to place a search box on your site
D. How does the search engine work

A. Benefits of adding a search engine and types of sites where it can be used.

1. Ecommerce sites - your ecommerce site usually has many different types of products so the navigation menu is not focused enough to rapidly find the specific product your visitor is looking for. Adding a search engine to your ecommerce site will help the visitor to easily and quickly oom in on the product by entering their keyword in the search box.

2. Dynamic sites - search engines have difficulty spidering dynamically generated web pages. These are pages often generated from a database, so the information on your pages will not appear in the search engine's index. Add a search engine to each page of your site. If a visitor arrives on that page from one of the large search engines, they can then do a quick search from hat page instead of searching elsewhere.

3. Small sites - web sites that contain 5-10 pages don't need a search engine because visitors don't have to search through many pages to find the information. Instead, make sure you create simple navigation menu at the top or side and bottom of your web pages.

B. Types of search service providers

1. Atomz (www.atomz.com) - Atomz Express Search is a free service where you can integrate basic search capability on your personal web site or on one of your commercial sites. It can be used on sites with 750 total pages or less and allows customization of look and feel to match your site's design. Some third-party text ads are shown above and below the search results. You can use it for as long as you like for there is no trial period.

2. Freefind (www.freefind.com) - features include the ability to customize search and results pages. The free accounts are limited to 3,000 pages or 32MB of storage. Site search is hosted on FreeFind's server. It generates a site map for you, tracks visitors searches and indexes password protected pages.

3. Google Free site search service (www.google.com/services/free.html) - searches only the
specific domain(s) that you list when you create your search box. You can customize your results display to include background, text and link colors you select. The search box itself will reside on your web site. The search results page will be served by Google with the customized look and feel you specify. Google may serve ads on the results page. You can do an unlimited amount of searches. You must display the Google logo on the web pages that contain the search box.

C. Where to place the search engine on your site?

1. Place the search box in a prominent location on your web page...preferably top center or top right.

2. Place the search box on all pages of your web site. Visitors may enter your site from any page.

3. Make the search box large enough to accommodate all search terms the visitor would use to find the information.

4. The search box should be a type-in box, not a link so visitors don't have to wait for another page to load.

5. Limit the search results to 50 per page. Visitors lose their patience if they have to scroll through long lists of results.

D. How does the search engine work?

It works similar to the major search engines that search the web, however instead of crawling the web the search engine spider will search your site. The results of the crawl are stored in a database that resides on the search company's server.

The company provides the necessary code to add a simple form to your web page. This usually consists of a search box for inserting your keywords and a send button. When you click the button it sends the query to the search company. They process the query to create a search results page. This shows those pages in your site that match the visitor's query.

The quality of the search results the search engine spider collects depends on how much information is contained in your site. Therefore take time to correctly optimize your site i.e. provide lots of good content that includes your keywords. Optimize your meta tags, images and create an accessible navigation structure.

Optimizing your site will not only provide focused results from your internal search engine but also boost your rankings in the major search engines.

About the Author:

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com. Affordable Web Site Design and Web Hosting. Subscribe to his "Marketing Tips" newsletter for more original articles. mailto:subscribe@isitebuild.com. Read more of his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles