Posts Tagged internet business

How To Improve Your Website To Increase Your Customers?

If you’ve been to my site before, you might’ve noticed that I’ve changed things around a bit there. I firmly believe that every business needs to continually change in order to grow and as it’s my aim to grow my business, I’ve redesigned my blog so that I can bring information to my readers in an eye-friendly format and in a way that promotes my own online brand.

 

I thought this might be a good opportunity to remind you that change can be good and can open the doors for you to allow real growth. If you’re in the world of online business, having the right set up and the right knowledge can make a vast difference to your level of success.

There’s a saying that says, “if it’s not broke, then don’t fix it.” But another important saying is, “The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.” A really important aspect of online business success is to analyse your current results.

 

If you think they could be better, a few tweaks might help. You might not want to do a total overhaul like I did but even making a few tweaks could make a big difference in your conversion rate from visitors to customers.

What Changes Can Help?

Here are a few helpful tips for you to get more results out of your online site:

· Add social media buttons so people will share your site with others (Psst…Don’t hesitate to share this post with your friends! ;)

· Make sure your site is easy to navigate. Can you get to the home page from every page on your site? Does every site offer a clear way to learn more or to buy something?

· Put important and eye-catching information above the fold. Staying above the fold on the website equates to ensuring that the section of the screen that’s visible to visitors has important info. Grab their attention before they have to scroll and you’ll have more of a chance of them doing the actual scrolling to get to your “buy now” button.

· Analyse your web analytics regularly so you can see what is working and investigate things that may be preventing you from making money. There are loads of web analytics tools available for free to help you check various things like: keywords, links, bounce rate, and more.

Don’t forget to check your site on a regular basis to see if it’s time to make a change or if a recent tweak is improving your success.

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

D.I.Y Web Design – Do You Really Need a Web Designer Anymore?

With so many resources out there, is it really necessary to hire a web design company these days?  Just think of all the great resources like WordPress, Joomla, Blogger and so may HTML editors out there that enable just about anyone to create a good-looking website.

Even children can create and upload their own websites these days.  So, this brings us back to the question, do you really need the services of a professional web design company today?

The answer is yes and no, all depending on what you are striving to achieve with your website.  If the intention is just to have a website where you can upload images of yourself or share some information about yourself, you could very well just create a Facebook profile or set up a Squidoo lens.  Tell you friends about it in an email and soon you will even have some traffic to your website.

But this is if you are setting up a website just for fun.  There is another side to web design, one that is much more serious and that is web design for business purposes.  While these same tools can be used to set up a business website, chances are your business website has been created to serve as a tool to either promote your business or tell your customers more about the business.

This is where things get serious.  Not only do you want to promote your business, but you want to do it right.  That is not to mention all the things you may want your website to do, such as gather email addresses and even have e-commerce capabilities. This is where a professional web design business comes in.

You see, a web designer is not just someone who can quickly slap together a website for you, no a web designer is so much more.  So for example, any good web design company will follow a proper consultation process with their client.  They will gather information about the business, the needs of the business, the type of clientele they cater for and lots of other important information.

They will then set out to do some market research on the target market of the client and look at what type of corporate image the client should strive for in their website design.  This aspect alone can make or break a company’s website.

On top of that, a client would want their website to rank as well as possible in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s).  What is the point of having a website if no one ever sees it?  To achieve this, various onsite Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques need to be done and if you are really serious about promoting your business in the Search Engines, you will also need to have an offsite promotion strategy.

A professional web design company should be able to assist you with all of the above, in other words, not just the technical aspects of building the website, but also advice as to the market and how your website should look and also how to promote it, via the internet.

Then you need backup. What if something goes wrong with your website, or for some reason it is kicked off the Search Engines?  Chances are that if you have built your website yourself, you may not know how to approach this project.  On the other hand, your web designer has probably seen this many times before and should be able to assist you quickly and efficiently.

So, do you really need a web designer these days? The answer is simple, you do not need a website designer if you are not serious about your website, but if your website is a tool for your business and more than just a fun project, you are much better off in investing in the services of a professional web design company.

Rian Schoeman
SilverFox Web Design

, , , , ,

No Comments

Major Web Design Conference To Be Hosted By UVA

July 6, 2009 — EdUI 2009, a conference to be held Sept. 21-22 at the University of Virginia, will focus on Web design, usability and accessibility – designing Web sites so users of all abilities can effectively access online information and services.

The conference will bring together experts and innovators recognized in the fields of user interface design, usability research, accessibility, web programming, social media and instructional technology and will provide workshops and presentations as well as opportunities for participants and attendees to network.

The conference is geared to Web professionals in higher education as well as designers, developers, webmasters, managers and professionals interested in interactive design involved in creating Web sites for any institution or industry.

“The higher education market is starved for this kind of information,” John Loy said.

Loy, a U.Va. Library Web designer and information architect, began laying the groundwork for the conference after meeting EdUI 2009 keynote speaker Jared Spool at a conference in Seattle last year. Since then, he and a team of University and regional Web community members have worked to bring the conference to fruition.

“We are embracing a community model for planning this. Many in the IT and communications field are involved,” said Trey Mitchell, webmaster for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

Susan Teague Rector, Web application manager at Virginia Commonwealth University and a member of the planning team, is excited about the conference. “It’s a great opportunity to hear leaders in the Web community speak about what’s next on the horizon in terms of user experience, usability and Web design.”

Online learning management is also an area that will be covered during the conference. There is continuing demand for professors to adopt online tools to reach their students, Mitchell said. “Students live their lives online and teachers need to be aware of trends and student expectations.”

The team has lined up a group of speakers that are some of the “most sought-after experts in the web industry,” Loy said.

“These are the ‘rock stars’ of the Web design world,” Mitchell said.

The conference keynote speaker is Spool, a pioneer in Web site usability and founder of User Interface Engineering, a usability research organization. Spool teaches at the Tufts University Gordon Institute and is the author of “Web Usability: A Designer’s Guide.”

Other featured speakers are:

•    Michael Wesch, assistant professor of cultural anthropology and digital ethnography at Kansas State University, a leader in exploring the impact of social media and digital technology on society and culture. His videos have been translated into more than 15 languages and cover technology, education, information and culture. His most popular videos, “The Machine is Using Us” and “A Vision of Students Today” are available on YouTube. He has been dubbed “the explainer” by Wired magazine and an “Emerging Explorer” by National Geographic, and has received numerous awards for his work, including a Wired magazine Rave Award and the John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in Media Ecology. Wesch is a graduate of U.Va.’s College of Arts & Sciences with a major in anthropology.

•    Molly Holzschlag, an advocate for Web standards. A lecturer and author, she has written more than 30 books, including “The Zen of CSS Design,” which she co-authored with Dave Shea.

•    Dana Chisnell, a usability research consultant who focuses on user interface design and technical communications surrounding design issues in software, hardware, Web sites, online services, games and other applications. The founder of UsabilityWorks, Chisnell has worked with Yahoo!, Intuit, AARP, Wells Fargo, E*TRADE, Sun Microsystems and others to improve the design of their products and services. She is considered by many to be an expert in usability issues for older adults and presenting information in “plain language” that makes sense to most users, and issues related to ballot design and voting accessibility.

•    Dan Rubin, the founder and principal of WebGraph and a leader in Web standards and usability. He is a contributing author of “Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation,” a technical reviewer for “Beginning CSS Web Development,” “The Art & Science of CSS” and “Sexy Web Design.” He is the coauthor of “Pro CSS Techniques” and “Web Standards Creativity.”

•    Derek Featherstone, founder of Further Ahead, a Web development and consulting company, and a Web accessibility technical trainer and author. He consults to government agencies, educational institutions and companies in the private sector. He is lead of the Accessibility Task Force of the Web Standards Project and a member of the DOM Scripting Task Force.

“To interact with this caliber of speakers for professional development, one would need to attend a conference in a major city like Seattle or New York,” Mitchell said.

Fees for the conference are $500 for the public and $425 for U.Va. employees, who can defray the cost by using the employee educational benefit. Registration and information is available at www.eduiconf.org.

“At a time when staffs and budgets are cut back, it is a tremendous opportunity for those at U.Va. to attend this conference,” U.Va. webmaster Nancy Tramontin said. Everyone in her office plans to attend. “Under normal circumstances, staff might pay thousands of dollars to travel and attend a conference with these speakers. We are grateful to this opportunity.”

The conference is organized by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and U.Va. in partnership with User Interface Engineering.

, , , , , ,

No Comments

Pulling In Targeted Visitors and Becoming a Magnet For the Search Engines

What company couldn’t use an engaging web campaign that drives amazing amounts of hot web leads. A results based effective website design is a top priority.  It is true that most businesses are concerned about costs, and need to be frugal. Effective website design does not necessarily mean expensive.  To the contrary, website design rates can be found that is quite within the means of even a small company’s budget.  Here are to help online businesses attract all of the targeted traffic you desire.

To begin with, don’t think that when you put your business online visitors will flock to your doors.  The fact of the matter is if you lack in marketing skills your online business will be lost in the competition.  An effective website design will insure that your site is perfectly optimized for your traffic and the search engines, which means it will be built around your chosen key terms and phrases.  This helps people who are searching for products or information arrive at your site to find exactly what they are in need of.

Excellent corporate website design is absolutely necessary if you want to stand out from your competition.  Long gone are the times when you could create a website that has been made using a pre-designed template.  You demand an online presence that is unlike any other and makes an impression about your unique brand from the very first second.  Your online business should be professional and appealing, and should showcase your unique brand.  When targeted traffic arrives at your site, they will undoubtedly know that this is the destination where they wanted to be.

Naturally, website design rates vary greatly.  Many people spend more than is necessary for a dynamic site that is state-of-the-art, but you can also get the same effect without spending more than what is budgeted.  Without a doubt, sometimes you pay for more than you receive.  You do want the best effective website design you can get without depleting the budget.  Is this possible?  It certainly is.

, , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Paying For Clicks – Still The Fastest Way To Instant Web Traffic

There are so many success stories you will hear about businesses making it good on the internet. The troubling thing is that for every success story, there is probably the story of a hundred failures. Many have unsuccessfully launched a business enterprise that is internet based but only a handful shall succeed.

Is this through luck? That is even more remote. It takes good business sense and a lot of help and team effort. Most importantly, it is the eagerness to succeed and the determination to learn and the willingness to invest in a lot of hard work and some money.

The Very Basic

Like Neo, traffic is “The One”. Without traffic, all your effort would just go to waste. Every business needs customers, without them you wouldn’t have anyone to sell your products to. On the internet, website traffic is like walk in customers in the real world. It is a matter of simple mathematics, the more people you get to your site, the more sales you are likely to make.

But like any business that’s in every corner building or in the mall, not everyone that goes in will buy, but the greater of number that do come in to browse your merchandise, the greater number of people that will buy your products. It is a simple and known fact.

But, how do you get traffic, traffic large enough that could make a small percentage of eventual buyers enough to make a good profit. Many big companies generate traffic of tens of thousands a day and a measly ten to fifteen percent actually buys, but that small percentage is enough to provide them with good business.

Many of these success stories, did it the easy way, by paying for their traffic. You may have heard this one before, but you have to spend money to make money. Advertising is the key. The more people that knows that your site exists; the more people would of course go to your site, that’s common sense.

There are many ways of generating free traffic, but the truth is that they will not achieve anything like the same results as paid advertising. These paid advertisements include advertising schemes by Google and Yahoo.

The Value of Searches

The search engines are the easiest and fastest medium for finding what a person needs on the internet. Search engines have been very popular because they provide a vital service to many people. They are free and easy to use. With this popularity, they get many visitors and clicks and they are the most commonly visited sites on the internet today. It is easy to understand why so many companies would pay to advertise with these search engines.

Search engines are the number 1 source of information to millions of people that use them each day. They provide targeted links to possible sites that may be of interest to the searcher. If your site’s link pops up in the high rankings of the search results pages, you have a great chance that visitors will go to your site. While search engine optimization is a cheaper and low cost way to get your site a high rank, paying for advertisements will ensure that you will be on the top ranks and by that I mean those pop up ads on the right hand side bar in the search engines.

When you pay for your advertisements, it is like paying for your traffic. You may think this not to be such a good idea, but the truth is that the payoffs could be astounding. When you pay for your traffic, you are guaranteed of a consistent traffic flow to your site. You will hardly have a dry day, every day will result in sales.

Paying for your Traffic

Usually, you will be charged with the number of hits a link gets when your ads is clicked, this is called pay per click. With some of the smaller search eniges, you will be charged for the number of times your ad appears. It is imperative that you have good keyword content in your ad. There are many tools that aid you in using the right keyword for the right moment.

All the money you spent in paying for your traffic will not be for naught. You will get an impressive boost in traffic which will also result to a great boost in your sales figures. Paying for your traffic would be a really good idea and you will get all the benefits it has to offer.

Setting up a pay per click campaign is in reality not all that easy and many people will give up before even trying, because of the fact that it can be so complicated. Fortunately many web design companies can assist you with your website promotion and it is therefore important that you make use of the services of a full service web design company from the start, one that will not only help you set up a search engine friendly website, but also one that can help you with your pay per click advertising campaigns.

While pay per click is the fastest way to get traffic to your website, you could lose a bundle if you are not careful. For this reason you have to make sure that your web design company is well-versed in pay per click campaigns, so that you will actually make money and not just lose money.

Rian Schoeman
SilverFox Web Design

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

3 Keys to a Profitable Web Site

Have you visited Amazon.com or Comcast.com lately?  When you got to the home page, most likely the first thing that came to mind was “Great, I’m here, now where can I find what I need?” 

 

Now think of a time when you came across a “less impressive” site?  Maybe it was done with obvious shortcuts, used one of the many overused templates on the web or just looked like it was done by a twelve year old.. I suspect that what came to mind when you saw that web site wasn’t “what can you sell me?but rather “is this a real company?”

 

Having a successful web site on the Internet has everything to do with trust.  If your site visitor does not believe in you right off the bat, you’re likely to lose that visitor forever.This article will outline some of the critical components to creating that assurance and building a profitable web site.

 

First, your web site must give the perception that you are real.  Your site visitor must get an immediate impression from your web site that your company is unique from all the others out there and run by actual people.There are a number of techniques you can use to meet that goal, including excellent copywriting and compelling graphics and layout.  The important thing is to make sure that you and your web designer never lose site of who you and your company are, and how to present that to the world. 

 

Second, your web site must immediately show people that you have a proven track record in your industry.Use effective copy writing and great testimonials to back it up.Don’t bury your achievements in the far reaches of your web site, ensure they are prominently shown on each page for the visitors to see. 

 

Finally, you have to communicate effectively through your web site that you can provide something to help fix your visitor’s problems.Site visitors have plenty to do and would be thrilled if you could offer them a solution to their problem and they could stop hunting for one.  Your well put together, credible web site is the calling card you need to make that happen. 

 

A web site can be created through a number of different vehicles and web site designers have all different levels of expertise.  Get your free report:  “11 Questions to Ask a Web Site Designer Before You Hire One” to learn what to look for in your web designer. 

, , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Being Relevant – Keep Your Message Fresh!

If there is one thing we all have in common it is that we want to be relevant to our customers, no matter what business we are in.  The fact is that if you are not relevant, you will lose your customers to the competition.  But how does one stay relevant in the eyes of your customers?

I touched on something important in the last sentence.  It is one thing to be relevant in the industry, but another to be relevant to your customers, who in the end are the group you want to stay relevant to.  You see, you could be an expert in your field, the number one, the person with all the knowledge, but if that knowledge comes across as purely technical or academic, you may impress your peers, but are likely to lose your customer, because you are not relevant to them.

Stuffing a customer, who is not an expert’s head full of academic and technical terms that he does not understand will more likely bore him than impress him and he would much rather go off and look for information that is relevant to him than your ‘technical drivel’.  For this reason you have to keep your message relevant or fresh.

By this I mean that you can still go ahead and impart your vast knowledge of a topic on your customer, but it has to be done in such a way that it is fresh, easy to read or understand and relevant to the customer’s point of view.  Say you are in the crane industry and you are an engineer.  From your years of knowledge and experience you know that if a crane’s arm is extended at a 30 degree angle, with an extension of 3 meters and a cable with a breaking force of six tons, the forces working in on the rotator axle are X.

To you this might be fascinating and to a certain portion of your customers too, but for most of them it would mean nothing.  Now let’s say you take the same example above and your are pitching to a prospective customer who is looking at the crane, wouldn’t it make much more sense to tell him that this crane with its arm extended as it is and the current cable would be able to lift a tanker truck?

That immediately puts it in the realms of this customer’s understanding.  He is now thinking of how immensely strong this crane is and how easily it would be able to do the job he wants to rent it for.  He might even ask you how you know it and if he is interested, you can then show him how you did the calculations.  Now he will be impressed with your knowledge, because you first put it into terms that he understands and then you gave him the proof.  To him, you are now an expert.  If you had done things the other way around though, you would have lost him at the word go.

Let’s take our business, which is web design.  There is so much involved in the field that I could keep the customer occupied with information about the technicalities of web design such as SEO, CSS, keyword density, back links and more and in the process of doing so bore the customer to death.

Alternatively I can use examples such as, we have designed site X (and let him have a look at it).  When we first submitted the site to Google, it was nowhere to be found if one searched for the term that the site was submitted for.  I can then tell the person to key in the keyword into a Google search and then let him see that this sit appears on the first page of Google.  After he has seen the evidence, I can then tell him about what is involved in achieving this and by doing this, I will have once again put things into terms he understands and then I can show him how it works.

You see, it is all about keeping the message relevant or fresh.  The same goes for writing articles or newsletters, in fact any promotional material.  You have to think about the material from the perspective of the client.  Ask yourself how you can put your message into terms that your client is likely to identify with – not only understand, but identify with.  Once you get that right, you have a foot in the door.

So remember, no matter what business you are in, always keep your message fresh!

Rian Schoeman

SilverFox Web Design

, , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Articles – The Quickest Way To Your Customers’ Wallets

One way of promoting your website and product can be achieved for free. As an additional bonus, this “free” method can boost your site’s rankings and sales, doubling and even tripling your income.

Articles is one of the easiest ways to promote your website in order to generate traffic and increase your earnings.

How does this work?

Write articles relating to your website and submit them to “free content” submission sites. It’s easy to do, it takes little time but it can increase your website traffic, sales and of course, your income.

How can article writing boost traffic and income?

The article on the free content site contains a link to your own website. Readers, after reading your articles, may choose to click on the link and pay you an unexpected visit. Having them on the free content sites is also making these articles available to other webmasters who may wish to publish that article on their sites.  In addition the back link you have put in your article can also be picked up by search engines such as Google, which places a lot of value on relevant back links.

As the list of your published articles grow larger, and more and more of them appear on different websites, the total number of links to your site increases also.  So the more back links you have pointing to your site, the more important the search engine deems your site to be and it will improve it’s listing in the ranks.  Of course, the higher your site ranks in the search engines, the more clicks you will get and the more traffic you will naturally generate.

If your site is into promoting a product or service, the links that your articles have achieved will mean more potential customers for you. Even if visitors only browse through, you never know if they might be in need of what you are offering in the future.

There are also those who already have specific things they need on their mind but cannot decide yet between the many choices online. Chances are they may stumble upon one of your articles, get interested by the contents you wrote, go to your site and become enticed by your promotions.

Search engines do not just index the websites, they also index published articles. They also index any article that is written about your own website’s topic. So once someone searches for that same topic, the list of results will have your site or may even show the articles that you have written.

And to think, no effort on your part was used to bring them to your site, just your published articles and the search engines.

It is no wonder why many webmasters are suddenly reviving their old writing styles and taking time to write more articles about their site than doing other means of promotion.

Getting their site known is easier if they have articles increasing their links and traffic and making it accessible for visitors searching the internet. Since many people are now taking their buying needs online, having your site in the search engines through your articles is one way of letting them know about you and your business.

The good thing with articles is that you can write about things that people would want to know about. If you think about it, only a few minutes of your time is spent on writing one article and submitting it to free content sites. In the shortest span of time also, those are distributed to more sites than you can think of. Even before you know what is happening, you are getting more visitors than you previously had.

If you think you are wasting your time writing these articles, fast forward to the time when you will see them printed and wide-spread on the internet. Not to mention the sudden attention and interest that people are giving your website and your products or services.

Try writing some articles and you will be assured of the sudden surge in site traffic, link popularity and interest. Before you know it, you will be doubling and even tripling your earnings.

Nothing like getting benefits for something you got for free.

Rian Schoeman
SilverFox Web Design

, , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Important Considerations For Article Marketing

The importance of articles in today’s websites and internet based companies are immeasurable. They dictate a lot in the success and the drive of traffic into one’s site.   It has become a key element in making a site work and earning a profit. A website operator and owner must have the good sense to include articles in his or her site that will work for them and earn them the many benefits articles can give to their site.

Articles have been known to be the driving force in driving traffic to a website. Articles are a factor in giving site high rankings in search result pages. The higher a site ranks the bigger slice of the traffic flow pie he gets. With a large amount of traffic, there are more profits and more potential for other income generating streams as well.

But, it is not just about stuffing your site with articles; they have certain requirements as well. These requirements must be met to obtain the maximum benefits an article will provide for your site. A well written article will catch the eyes and interest of your customers and keep them coming back for more.  They would also be able to recommend your site to others.

Here are some tips to help you and assist you in making your articles. Below you will read about four things all articles must have to make them successful and helpful in making your site a profit earning and traffic overflowing site.

  • Keywords and Keyword Phrases.

An article must always be centered on the keywords and keyword phrases. As each website visitor goes to a site, there are those who are not merely browsing but actually looking for a specific something. When this happens, a searcher usually goes to a search engine and types in the keywords they are looking for (e.g. Web Design, Meningitis, Tax Lawyer etc.). It could be anything they want.

The Important thing is that you have an article that has the keywords that are related to your site. For example, if you maintain an auto parts site, you must have articles about cars and their parts.  There are many tools on the internet that provide assistance in helping a webmaster out in determining what keywords and keyword phrases are mostly sought out. You can use these tools to determine what keywords to use and write about.

  • Keyword Density

Now that you have your keywords and keyword phrases, you must use them fully. An article must have good keyword density for a search engine to “feel” its presence. Articles should at least have ten to fifteen percent of keyword density in their content for search engines to rank a site high in their search results. Getting a high rank is what articles do best for a site.  If your keyword is web design, then the phrase should appear in the website a few times.  The 10 to 15% rule is really only a guideline, because things such as keyword stuffing (adding too many of the same keywords) can actually cause your website to dwindle in search engine rankings.  A good search engine such as Google actually also uses keyword relevance to see if the keyword is relevant to the rests of the article’s content.  If not, you can have as many keywords as you like, but you won’t achieve much success with them.

  • Good Article Content

Like what is stated above, you cannot just riddle an article with keywords. They must also be regarded as good reading material. Articles must be able to entertain people as well as provide good information and help for their needs. Articles should be written well with correct spelling and good grammar. If you want people to trust you, make your work good and well thought out.

People respond well to figures, facts and statistics. Try to get great information and as many facts as you can. A good and well written article will boost your reputation as an expert in your chosen field or topic. As more people believe in you, they will be able to trust you and your products.

  • Linking Articles

And another important thing to remember. If you are going to submit articles to ezines and/or contribute your articles to newsletters and other sites, DON’T ever forget to include a link to your site. A little resource box with a brief description of your site and you should always be placed right after your articles that you have submitted. If people like your articles, they will most likely click on the link directing them to your site.

Rian Schoeman

SilverFox Web Design

, , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Powered by Yahoo! Answers