10 Ways of Getting Content For Your Site Part 1
By Quentin | May 28, 2009
Content is really important for webmasters. Why? When people surf the web, they are looking for information. They aren’t looking for you specifically, unless you’re well-known. If they visit your site and don’t what they’re looking for, they will leave quickly. And they probably won’t return to your site. Well, they might stumble back onto your site, but not on purpose.
Quality sites provide quality content. Quality content helps you retain visitors. Visitors may spread the word about your site and thus attract new visitors.
Adding new high quality content to your site regularly is also beneficial. With more content, you will have more pages indexed by the search engines. More pages indexed means you will have more opportunities for people to find you via search engines.
So how exactly do you get content for your site?
1. Your unique knowledge
Everybody knows something others don’t. Use your own unique insight and knowledge to provide content. Think of what activities you’ve participated in the past. Think of what you’ve learned through past experiences. Any experiences can help, whether at home, school, work, or anywhere else. Of course, providing your own content regularly can be very difficult.
2. Personal stories
Personal stories are the basis of some sites and blogs. Want to connect with your audience and let them know more about you? Use personal stories. However, if you don’t want to be too personal, make sure you inject your personality into your writing. Personality differentiates you from the rest and can keep visitors coming back.
3. How-to guides
People have problems and like to figure out how to solve them. Had some problem you struggled with for a while? Did you eventually solve it? The way you solved it could be written into a how-to guide. Or write a how-to guide about your expert area. For example, if you’re a technical computer whiz, you could write a how-to guide for fixing computers.
4. Do research
Do some research on the web. Use search engines, search directories, and follow links to find relevant sites. Do some research at your local library. Grab some books about your site’s topic and start digging through them. Find local experts, teachers, and professors and ask them questions about your site’s topic. When you research, note down interesting ideas and you’ll undoubtedly learn more. You’ll have more unique knowledge that you can turn into content. You might even discover something earth-shattering!
5. Subscribe to newsletters
Good newsletters are a great way to keep informed about a particular topic. They can keep you informed of offers that you may be able to provide on your own site. As well, they can keep you on top of what’s happening in your area by providing time-sensitive content.
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Your Internet Marketing Made Easy
By Quentin | May 26, 2009
Marketing online has become the preferred method of promotion and advertising for both web and home businesses. Internet marketing gives business owners the opportunity to target their chosen audience, while often receiving instant results. To accomplish your goals in the internet marketing field, you must first familiarize yourself with general promotional and marketing facts. Just a few simple tips can help you build your business into all that you desire.
To produce a significant income from your business, you must first find a way to gain visitors to your web site. Generating traffic is very important in internet marketing. It is a good idea to visit other web sites with a similar audience as yours to aid in the development of your internet marketing plan. Affiliate programs are an ideal source of traffic generation, as well as, web site advertising. As the internet expands, so do the many ways to bring customers to your site.
The word “free” is one of the most powerful internet marketing tools ever. Offering a free trial or sample on your web site is the perfect way to get potential customers excited about your business. As in any marketing plan, creativity is a must. If you are not able to dish out any free goodies, why not create a special offer or discount? It is essential that this offer is only offered at your site; this shows that you are willing to try something different from other business owners. Innovation can be the key to success in the internet marketing game.
Developing an honest and solid reputation in the business community is a necessity. Customers need to feel secure purchasing from you, and not worry about disclosing their personal information through your servers. Most consumers look for a seal of approval such as the Better Business Bureau Online icon. Once customers trust you, your business and internet marketing aspirations can continue to prosper.
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Web Marketing for Business and Beginners
By Quentin | May 24, 2009
I have just released two new programs for the Business professional and the Beginner web markter.
The first is the IM Club which is a complate set of online tutorials that take the newbie through all the various aspects of setting up an online business.
This is mainly for the person who wants to do it all themselves however we offer full support for the program.
You will find it at The Internet Marketers Club
The Second is a product we are offering businesses where we will do a full audit of your current web site and then offer numerous suggestions to make it work a lot better for you.
In the last few months we have done a number of these and find that the majority of business websites are not producing the ReturnOn Investment they should.
You Business website is an important assett and should be optimized for best returns. While it is mainly for Australian businesses we can also use Skype to help overseas businesses and you get the added saving with currency conversion.
You will find the Web Marketing For Profit Site here.
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5 Ways To Guarantee Your Website Is Ready For Traffic
By Quentin | May 24, 2009
It’s so easy to annoy and drive away your website visitors without even realizing it. Ensuring your site is user-friendly–and not annoying–is one of the most important factors in creating a successful online presence.
To guarantee your website is ready for traffic, consider the following 5 points before kicking your advertisements into high gear:
1. Remove any “under construction” signs.
People are visiting your website because your promotional message triggered their fancy. Nobody wants to be directed to a site that holds a welcome message and a sign that states, “under construction.”
Frankly, sending traffic to unfinished website only defeats the purpose of advertising in the first place.
The idea is to cater to visitors, as long as possible, in hopes of getting them to join your list or to buy. Neither is possible when you’re promoting a site that isn’t ready to accommodate the traffic it receives.
2. Create your subscription forms.
You can’t walk without putting one foot in front of the other. The same holds true for your mailing lists… You can’t build a list without offering plenty of sign up forms.
To prepare, place the forms in a prominent box on your web pages and offer an incentive to join.
- Know who you’re talking to and speak to them directly.
- Address the problems that your list will solve for them.
- Answer your prospect’s question, “What’s in it for me?”
- Ask them to take specific action to join.
This not only makes your mailing list enticing for newcomers, it also allows you to connect with them after they’re gone.
3. Include an easy-to-use navigational system.
The truth is, your visitors are going to be pressed for time. This is the way of the world-wide-web and the more you can do to make surfing your site — EASIER — the better!
A navigational system using understandable links or buttons that lead deeper into your site, as well as making sense to the end-user, is nothing short of surfing bliss!
If all else fails, use a site map page!
4. Work smarter… not harder. (Build it one section at a time)
If you’re creating a large site, rather than using “under construction pages” that cut off the natural surfing flow for visitors, consider building it one section at a time.
If you’re erecting a home and garden site, decide what to put in front of the public first; the home section or the garden area. Then proceed to build it.
The great thing about structuring web pages in this fashion is how nicely your website will flow, while the rest of the site is being designed offline!
5. Think community!
People like to feel as if they’re a part of something special. Your job, as a site owner, is to make this a reality for every person who visits your website.
- Be yourself and let your personality shine through.
- Offer more than a quick one-liner in your outgoing emails.
- Think relationships first - sales second.
- ASK visitors what their pressing problems are and help solve them.
- Provide adequate community tools and add to them, frequently.
- Provide tons of free information to help educate your end-users.
Every person, who is a part of a target market, shares common traits with others in that community. That’s a fact! I suggest you build your site around these shared attributes. You simply can’t go wrong with this mindset.
Before you tackle the job of website promotion, make sure your website meets all the criteria listed above to guarantee it is ready for the traffic surge it is about to receive.
Now… go forth and promote for prosperity!
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10 Essential Tips For A Web Designer
By Quentin | May 22, 2009
One of the toughest challenges facing any designer is the web page. There are perhaps millions of pages in the World Wide Web all jostling for attention. The question that is foremost is how you as a designer can make a difference.
Study the subject being featured. Visit as many sites as possible that cover the same as well as related topics. Make a list of what works and what doesn?t. Avoid using a design that is going to be uniform with others. Unless your pages are distinctive they are not going to work.
1. Try and avoid run of the mill things like page counters, java text scrolling, flashing images, GIF images, signs which say ?we are not ready.? Or, too many illustrations or animations, black grounds or fade ins.
2. Create a design which coveys in a stylish way what it has to. Instead of using downloaded illustrations use original ones.
3. Avoid things like heavy files or graphics. These will slow down your pages. GIF is better than JPEG files.
4. Think of the target audience and subject being addressed when designing. The overall effect should be that of exclusivity.
5. Avoid incorporating download plugins. While Flash is innovative and fun you will loose viewers if you don?t provide an HTML alternative.
6. Design the pages so that they are not more than 50K.
7. Remember the rule of thumb; a web page should not have more than three screens. And, ensure that the viewer does not have to scroll horizontally.
8. Test your website pages with several browsers. Make sure they open quickly and completely. Do a reality check by asking a cross section of users to check the site. Usability checking will bring to the fore any mistakes made.
9. Don?t use backgrounds with tiles or patterns it makes the design fussy and decreases readability. Avoid frames they make the pages difficult to book mark.
10. Determine accurately the rules of creative design and ensure that you apply them. If you have links make sure they work. Limit page content. Pay attention to search engine optimization. Ensure that the design follows the content and is not a separate element. Maintain archives. Use innovative fonts and titles. The content should follow basic elements of style or a style sheet.
When designing the web page think about the site as a whole not each page separately. There should continuity in design. Include a site map for easy navigation. Pay attention to imparting knowledge, include information on the subject of the site, give tips, make available how to articles as well as publications on the topic. The site and pages should be interactive without being a nuisance, so links must be well thought of and of practical use.
Keep in mind at all times the 5 golden principles of design: balance, rhythm, proportion, dominance, and unity.
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6 Easy Ways to Create a Website
By Quentin | May 20, 2009
How? Here it is…
1. Conceptualize an idea. Think what you like your future website to be. What audience will you cater? Everything you do must redound to their fulfillment. They will be visiting to get what they need. Be sure that their needs are answered. That way they will be satisfied and will keep coming for more. Not only that, they can recommend your site to their friends if they find it functional and nice.
2. Find a host. Having a host is not that expensive. In fact you can get one at $70 for two years. However, if you don want to spend a single penny, there are lots of sites that are hosting for free. The only consideration is that their banner must be placed in your site. That for one is a great deal, isn?t it?
3. Start with your first page. Do the layout and design your first page. It will be easier and better if you have basic knowledge in HTML. Though there are hundreds of What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editors, but you will create a better site using HTML. There are tutorial sections available online. Take advantage on them and apply your knowledge to the web design you are creating.
4. Edit your page. Observe the loading and the navigation. Are they doing well? How about the web design, is it pleasing to the eyes? Are the fonts readable? Is the content helpful? Are there errors in spelling and grammar? Better check all these little details. They may be tiny details but they make up the whole website. Be careful in dealing with them. If there is a need to redo the page do it. It will be disastrous if you are displaying a total trash.
5. Do the rest of the pages. The goal is to attract visitors, keep them and to gain more.
Edit, proofread and edit more. It pays off to have everything in order. Never sacrifice the quality of your website. It is your frontline. It is the one capable of attracting visitors that makes your business sell.
6. Submit the pages to your host. After you are done with the pages and the editing, you can submit them to your host. Wait for it to be shown in the net. Do not forget to update the pages regularly. You have to be updated in order not to lose your target market. Otherwise, they will look for a better site that can satisfy their needs. You don?t want that to happen, do you?
You may not realize it but your site is already done. Easy as your ABC?s!
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4 Steps To Success In Web Development
By Quentin | May 18, 2009
If you are planning to become a serious player in the webdesign world, you should now what to learn and discover. Here’s a short list that gives you an overview of your needs.
1. Learn HTML
Before you start creating websites you should master HTML. This is the key element to even start publishing documents on the web. This sounds pretty obvious but there are some elements that you should understand like the label element which will add great usability to a form.
2. Master Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
I can’t stress this enough. DO NOT USE TABLES FOR YOUR LAYOUT!
Is it clear? Don’t, just don’t. Why? Because they work against you instead of for you. You can have so much more control of your layout, design and colors if you use 100% CSS.
1. CSS is easy
2. CSS is fast to create
3. CSS is lightning fast when your website loads
4. CSS is easy to modify
So forget table layouts and start using stylesheets. You will really like the things you can accomplish once you master them.
3. Learn A Server Side Language
This is needed to make dynamic websites like forums. PHP and ASP are a great example. You will need to understand what you can do with these languages and start using them.
Without a server side language your websites are really hard to maintain and will give you a hard job in creating an efficient website structure.
4. Learn A Database Language
I recommend learning MySQL since this is an open source database and is installed on most hosting providers in combination with PHP.
A database is nothing else then some tables with data. You can select data with queries like:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE ID = 3;
Now everything is selected from table when the ID equals three. It’s not hard to understand SQL, you just need to know how it works. PHPMyAdmin can help you a lot when you are creating your database.
So, start with step 1, and stick with CSS as long as you don’t master it. CSS is huge, and you will love it once you know how it works.
For application development you can’t do without a language like PHP and a database like MySQL.
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5 Surefire Ways To Ruin Any Website
By Quentin | May 16, 2009
Owning a website gives you certain rights. For example, you have the right to plaster your URL all over the doors and windows of your SUV in hopes that someone in one of the 7 cars you pass on the way to work will get the urge to visit your website and spend gobs of money. You own the website-this is your right. You also have the right to post pictures of your family, friends, pets, and other totally uninteresting images all over your website after all it’s yours. One of the biggest rights you have as a webmaster is the right to make your website successful (and profitable) or to run it into the ground like a 737 missing both engines and landing gear. For those of you who despise online success and frown upon the wealths of cyberspace I have compiled a list of 5 ways to ruin any website.
1. Make Your Website As Cluttered As Possible
Nothing makes visitors leave quicker than a cluttered website that is hard to navigate around. So if you want people to flee from your site like it’s a rabid wolf then be sure to put as much junk as you can on the homepage. Then make the links to the rest of the website hard to find. Be sure to have lots and lots of pictures, forms, banners and pop-ups as well. All the relevant information should be well hidden, and the main focus should appear to be the countless programs you want visitors to sign up for. That should keep any pesky visitors from ever coming back.
2. Never Update Your Website
If someone were to visit your website today and then come back 6 months from now they should see the same information. Nothing should be updated. This will let them know that you care nothing about the website and that you have nothing new to offer them. The next time they see a listing for your website they won’t even bother to visit. Great!
3. Never Ever Advertise
Advertising cost money and it might draw some good targeted traffic to your website. So be sure to never advertise. You can just keep promoting your website through those same tired free programs that you have been using for years. This should bring you little or no traffic, and the traffic that does come won’t be your target audience so they’re almost certain to leave without spending a dime. Awesome!
4. Always Sell A Crappy Product
Selling good products online can get you a good reputation. A good reputation can get you repeat sales and new customers. You don’t want all this hassle. So find the worst products you can and sell them exclusively. This should damage your reputation to the point where no one wants to bother buying from your site. Be sure to lie about your product too. This will further ruin any kind of credibility you may have.
5. Never Respond To Any Questions
If someone emails you with a question about your website or products on your website, Do Not Reply. Replying could be considered courteous and businesslike. You don’t want to come off that way. It’s better to just delete any emails from people who were interested enough in your website to take the time to email. Hopefully this will drive them to one of your competitors websites and out of your hair.
There you have it folks. Five great ways to ruin any website. So don’t blame me if you don’t follow these tips and you become an online success story. I’ve done all I can to try and help out. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to write down the URL that’s airbrushed on the hood of this Ford Explorer beside me…
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5 Important Website Writing & Design Conventions.
By Quentin | May 14, 2009
This article outlines the five most important conventions for writing and designing your webpages.
Your presentation is every bit as important as your content. The best content in the world won’t ever be read if the presentation is so bad that nobody stays long enough to read it. If you maximize your website usability, your visitors stay longer, read more, and you make more sales.
If the purpose of your web site is to educate your readers and/or lead them to a specific action, (like buying something) then you should seriously consider following these design and writing conventions…
1. Start Each Page With Your Most Important Content.
2. Use Meaningful Link Text to Provide Information.
3. Write Scannable Pages.
4. Use Simple Website Designs.
5. Use Clear, Consistent Website Navigation.
1. Start Each Page With Your Most Important Content.
People are impatient; they will scan your page quickly and leave as soon as they get bored. Put your best, most important content near the top of the page.
Design your layout so that nothing pushes your most important content down past the “page fold”. That is your “Prime Real Estate” — don’t waste it. Large logos, unnecessary graphics, ambiguous headlines…. all these things are a waste of your must valuable space.
Begin each page with a summary or a short list of page contents. Be specific, and place the newest items at the top of the list or in a “What’s New” section.
2. Use Meaningful Link Text to Provide Information.
Web surfers decide in seconds whether or not your page is worth reading. When you use bland, content-neutral words for your link text, you miss an important opportunity to provide information. (Also - visually impaired web users often instruct their computer to read the link text aloud, “Click here” won’t help them.)
The words used in your anchor text should suggest what the reader will find when they click on the link, and help them decide to click or not.
* Bad: To learn about icebergs, click here.
* Better: Icebergs
* Best: Where icebergs come from.
You can make your links even more informative by following them with a blurb:
Blurbs: Short Previews of Web Pages
A “Blurb” is a short paragraph that gives a preview of the page at the other end of a link. You are reading a blurb now. If a blurb helps a reader decide to click the link, then it works.
3. Write Scannable Pages.
Offline, books and magazine articles are designed for sequential reading: You start at the beginning and read to the end.
Online text is not necessarily sequential - it relies upon smaller chunks of text, which the reader often does not read in order. So each page of your website must make sense to a visitor who did not see the preceding page, or just arrived from a search engine.
Meaningful, informative headers & subheadings, bulleted lists, and bold keywords all help readers scan the page quickly and easily.
4. Use Simple Website Designs.
Your visitors didn’t come to see your fancy graphics. They came to find information about prices or availability, they’re looking for contact information or directions, or maybe they just want some technical details…
Unless your website is about cool graphic effects, I can guarantee that your visitors don’t really care about your spinning logo or dancing unicorns, or even whether or not your menu buttons blink or change background images on a mouse-over.
Web-savvy visitors have ‘trained’ themselves to ignore ads. Anything that flashes, shimmers, blinks or dances around will not get the attention that it deserves.
The more such things you put on your page, the harder your reader will have to work in order to find what they want. Too much of that and they are gone, never to return. Use images wisely. Every image on your page slows it down, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot….
* Use smaller images whenever possible.
* For large collections of images, use an index with thumbnails that they can click if they want to see the image full-size.
* Use an image editor to reduce the file size of your images
See our “Using images in your webpages” section for more about all that ~ http://blt-web.com/web_design/using_images.html
5. Use clear, Consistent Website Navigation.
Next to pages that take forever to load (and pop-ups), the biggest complaint that surfers have is difficult to understand and/or inconsistent website navigation…
* Use the same menu on all your pages.
* Use a logical link hierarchy, with related items together.
* Be perfectly clear with your link titles & descriptions.
* Use text links whenever possible.
* If you must use image links, use the alt=”link destination” element.
A website with more than ten or fifteen pages may not need a link from every page to every other page… you can link to each section from each page, but give each section its own “Table Of Contents”.
Every page should have a link to the home page and to the site map. (If you have less than ten pages, you may omit a site map, but your home page should have a text link to every page for search engines.)
See our “Menu Design Tips” page for more information ~ http://blt-web.com/web_design/menu_design.html
Following these 5 simple guidelines will help your website be a success. With faster-loading pages and easier-to-find information, people will read more of your content and are more likely to take the action that you want them to.
To Your Success!
Tim
Additional Reading:
http://www.smbtn.com/books/gb57.pdf ~ Writing and Editing Like a Pro Entrepreneurs Guidebook #57, from Small Business Town
http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/ ~ Writing for the Web, Research on how users read on the Web and how authors should write their Web pages.
http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/ ~ Writing for the Web, by Jakob Nielsen, distinguished engineer; PJ Schemenaur, technical editor; and Jonathan Fox, editor-in-chief, www.sun.com
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4 Stages of Website Design
By Quentin | May 12, 2009
Stage 1 - Style over substance
The first stage is to design a site that the chief executive officer, venture capitalists, and ad agencies like to see. There are all types of “bells and whistles” in this design. An entire site might be a Flash animated site. Or there might be some beautiful JavaScript mouse over effects or drop-down menus in the design. It’s always a pretty design, but the message is clear - style over substance.
Stage 2 - Designing for online visibility
In Stage 2, the reality of an ineffective web design begins to hit, usually around 3-6 months after the initial launch. A site will typically get rejected by many of the major directories, not be indexed by the major search engines, or not get the traffic or sales that were projected based on the various types of marketing strategies used. Typically, that’s when companies decide that they will try to hire a professional online marketer to promote the site. Doorway page companies, in some way, shape or form, rear their ugly heads. Unfortunately, many web site owners fall for a doorway page company’s pitch because the beautifully designed site couldn’t possibly be the problem with low site traffic. Yahoo might have rejected a site, or the site might have been listed in Yahoo and the company cannot understand why they have no description next to their company name. But in no way would many ad agencies or doorway page companies want to tell potential clients the truth — they simply did not design and write an effective web site — because it would mean losing thousands of pounds in business
Stage 3 - Designing for your audience
By Stage 3, after spending an exorbitant amount of money on pretty web site designs and various marketing strategies, web site owners generally figure out that they did not design or write an effective Web site for their target audience. Typically, web site owners will bring in a usability expert to analyze potential problems and present various solutions. Bringing in a search engine marketing expert to help with search-engine friendly web designs &templates early in the design phase can save a company thousands of pounds in online marketing costs.
Stage 4 - Site redesign
After careful usability and search engine visibility analyses, web site owners finally have an effective web site. A site that is written, coded and designed for user friendliness and search engine visibility generally gets the most traffic and resulting sales because it was written, programmed, and designed for end users.
Conclusion
Web sites should always be designed with your target audience in mind, not your own personal preferences. Colours have meaning. Professional designers understand the psychology of colour and the use of white space to best project the image your audience wishes to see. (For example, try not to use the colour red on a financial site.) Understanding the products/services/information your target audience is searching for is paramount to designing and maintaining an effective web site. When you launch a site, you might have to make an educated guess as to what your target audience wants. After that, tools such as site statistics software and reporting from site searches tell you exactly what your visitors are looking for. Then content and marketing strategies can be adjusted accordingly. Unless the advanced technology clearly benefits end users, do not use it on your site. If your venture capitalists or CEO’s or lawyers like the site, ask if they are going to spend the thousands or millions of pounds to keep you in business.
They’re not. Your target audience who will ultimately determine the success or failure of your site.
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