10 Unmistakeable Signs Your Website Needs an Overhaul

By Cathy Goodwin

Most business people know they need some kind of web design. Learning HTML and CSS means learning a whole new language (and if you don't know what those initials mean, you probably hired a designer).

But many people are convinced they know how to speak and write. So, they reason, why bother with a copywriter? They'll just write their own words.

Sometimes that works. But if you're making one of these 10 mistakes, your copy -- the words on your website -- are killing your business.

1.Your headline says, "Welcome."

Hey, come on. Visitors who come to your website know they're welcome. You created the site. You bought a domain. You're paying for web hosting. Of course they're welcome! Let's cut to the chase.

In fact, if your headline does say welcome, don't bother with the other tips. Move directly to find yourself some copywriting help.

2.Your sign-up box is hidden at the bottom of your page and/or you don't offer an irresistible freebie to motivate visitors to leave their contact information.

No sign-up box at all? Ouch. Read no further. You're using the web like a billboard, not a means to interact, communicate and build relationships.

3.Your home page doesn't communicate what you do and why you're different.

Never mind the vague stuff like, "I help people reach the dreams their souls yearn to find." How about, "If you're huffing and puffing to climb a flight of stairs, you may be climbing directly to a heart attack. I specialize in clients who think "exercise" is a 4-letter word and couldn't tell you where to find the nearest gym. Ask me about my 90-Day Fitness With Finesse Program."

4.You keep getting compliments on a beautiful site, but nobody's calling you.

Congratulations! You've got a work of art, but you really need a direct response advertisement.

5.You've got something at the top of your home page that isn't a headline.

A nice photo? A logo? Are you making visitors scroll down to get to your message?

6.You haven't created a path for visitors to take through your website.

Menus are great but you also need to suggest a logical sequence, from your home page to your "free stuff" and "contact" pages.

7.Your bio reads like a history lesson: where you've been, what you did, and where you went to school.

Sure, those features are important. But your bio should demonstrate why you are the best person to provide your service. Show, don't tell.

8. Your testimonials say you're "interesting" and "helpful."

Get convincing, results-oriented testimonials signed by real people. If you're a b2b, get URLs. Edit your testimonials to show how you got results.

9. No success stories.

Unlike testimonials, success stories showcase your process and need not refer to specific, identifiable people. Often this section will be the strongest client attraction magnet on your whole site.

10.You keep getting queries for the wrong service.

You're targeting HR managers. But you keep getting calls from individuals who just got handed a pink slip or the performance review from hell. Or you now offer marketing communication services and you still get calls about the time management service you offered five years ago.

When you overhaul your target market, mission or position, your copy deserves an overhaul, too. Confusion rarely leads to customers.

Bottom Line: Coy isn't what you learned in school. Your English teacher might faint dead away if she saw what you're creating. Copy for websites comes from direct mail copy -- those long mail pieces you like to toss. It's called "direct response" because people either ask for more info immediately -- or wander away forever. With TV and magazine ads, you can win customers through repetition: you're in their face.

Not so with direct response: you get one shot. And copy helps you make the most of it.

The Importance of a Website When Starting a Business

By Adam Webster

The Internet is one of the first places that most people turn to when trying to find information on almost anything. Search Engine Research has shown that more and more people are using search engines in place of phone books. This is evidenced from the type of searches being made. One of the best uses of the Internet is to look for a business that will satisfy a need or provide a service. It is necessary to have a website for your business if you want to take advantage of this change in people's search habits. Of course you would also like to take advantage of the potential profit from this different market.

Do not feel overwhelmed. There are easy ways of creating a website for your business that will not break the bank.

First, it is necessary to do some homework. You must establish goals for your website. Look at other websites of potential competitors and see what is included on the website. However, sometimes cheaper is not always better. It is important that the website is searchable and will show up on major search engines. Sometimes it is necessary to pay a little more to ensure exposure. Many web desigers will tell you upfront that they do not know how to optimize a website for the search engines. This may seem unusual, however, it is the truth. Search engine optimization is a whole catagory in and of itself. Look for a web design company that will take your design, hosting and optimization into account when they build the site. This will save you money in the long run.

The next task at creating a website for a new business is to find a Webmaster. This is the person who is responsible for designing the website and is also responsible for the upkeep. This is where some serious cash can be doled out. There are solutions to this problem, however. There are web-hosting companies that are designed to be very easy to customize, allowing someone to be their own Webmaster. Do not attempt this unless you are somewhat accustomed to the Internet, otherwise you run the risk of having a website that looks unprofessional and may not be found by the search engines.

When designing the website for a new business, it is important not to go overboard. Listen to the Webmaster, but don't do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. Make sure that the site is easily navigable. It should include a little history about the business and what goods or services are provided. If you are accepting orders for products online, then it is necessary to supply payment options and include the right forms to be filled out, including the name and address of the customer. Functionality is essential. Have the site built for the visitor not for you.

The thought of setting up a web site to promote a new business can be overwhelming. It does not need to cause undue stress. A lot of the legwork can be left up to the Webmaster. Find a Webmaster that you can trust and outline what it is you need and sit back and wait for the customers to roll in.

Why Should You Have A Web Site

By Glen P Jon

An email address may have been enough at one time, but now you're ready to consider owning a website. You may be an author or an affiliate marketer who uses the given links to your major associate's website. Amazon, Ebay, Youtube, MySpace etc. don't require owning a private or company website. There is much value to owning your own website. Your product and or service(s) become more personal and you have more control over the sales operation. You automatically gain a higher status with your own web site. You gain clout. A web site is like an office. It saves you money. You can actually sell things from the site.

Statistics have proven it takes an average of seeing an ad at least 7 times or more before a prospect is convinced enough to purchase what is available. With a web site the customer can either come back to you or you can continually email them. You have the capacity to harvest email addresses when you have a web site. This allows you to be in contact with your customers and prospects.

You can actually sell your product at a lower price if you own it on your own web site. Parent sites usually give you 50% of the profit. When you operate your own website and own your product, Much more of the money comes to you. After what ever website costs, you come out with a higher net.

You get a better cost per click when advertising on paid per click search engines, if you own a web site. Provided your domain name has something to do with what you are selling, search engines will actually favor your domain. You pay less money for a click to your link when that happens. Another example would be as follows: You're an affiliate for Charlies Sweet Potatoes. You could create a site called "SweetPotatoesOfCharles Dot Com" and get all of the clicks to your site. Your prospects would be "pre-sold on the potatoes" before they clicked the parent Charlies Sweet Potatoes affiliate link. Having your own web site is truly cost effective. When you're an affiliate marketer it behooves you to keep all the clicks instead of advertising the parent company's url. It makes you the center point and everything else branches off from you.

10 Rules Of Thumb To Select A Great Domain Name

By Patrice Rhoades-baum

Having a hardworking domain name for your website helps you clearly communicate with your prospects and clients. A great domain name makes it easy for prospects and clients to find your website, says something specific about you and your business, and helps protect your brand.

Here are 10 rules of thumb to select a great domain name:

1. It's easy to say.
This also means your domain name must be easy for teleclass, workshop, and radio show listeners to accurately hear.
Poor: TeamSpecialists.com
Better: TeamExperts.com

2. It's easy to spell.
Poor: PhenomenalMnemonicDevices.com
Better: GreatMemoryDevices.com
Best: MemoryDevices.com

3. It's easy to read, even when all letters are lowercase.
Poor: theenglishpoets.com
Better: englishpoets.com
Note: Make it easy for readers by capitalizing each word in your printed materials.

4. It's catchy and easy to remember.
Example (one of Taco Bell's actual domain names): FourthMeal.com
This example comes with a caveat; I don't advocate eating a fourth meal of fast food late at night!

5. It's clear, not cryptic.
Do you have a favorite phrase or industry jargon that's meaningful to you? Put yourself in your prospects' shoes: Would they have a clue what your clever domain name means?

6. It's only 1 or 2 words long (3 words is acceptable; 4 is generally too long unless the words are short).
Acceptable: WritingTipsForKids.com
Acceptable, but confusing when stated verbally: WritingTips4Kids.com

7. It has the fewest syllables possible.
Poor: ExperiencedCareerAdvisors.com
Better: CareerExperts.com

8. It communicates your business or brand.
Acceptable: JaniceJones.com
Better: JonesCPA.com

9. It ends with .com.
Let's say you want to purchase LeadershipStrategies.com, but it's already taken. Don't buy LeadershipStrategies.net. This will just confuse your clients and website visitors. Keep researching-you'll come up with a domain name that fits these criteria. Also, let's say you live in Canada; your best choices would be .com and .ca.

10. It may use hyphens but not underscores.
Poor: Janice_Jones_CPA.com
Better: Jones-CPA.com
Note: In this example, Janice Jones is wise to own at least two domain names: JonesCPA.com (her main website) and Jones-CPA.com. The latter helps protect her brand and is easier to read in printed materials. However, she must be sure to "redirect" visitors from Jones-CPA.com to her main site, JonesCPA.com.

More tips to select and purchase domain names:

Buy various versions to protect your brand-Our fictional accountant, Janice Jones, might decide to use JonesCPA.com as her main website. However, she should also purchase JonesCPA.net, JonesCPA.biz, JonesCPA.info, JaniceJones.com, JaniceJonesCPA.com, JJonesCPA.com, JonesAccounting.com, etc. This might seem expensive, but it will protect her brand if another Janice Jones exists, especially if she happens to be a CPA.

Purchase your business's tagline and book titles-If possible, purchase the tagline of your business, since this is foundational to your brand. And purchase the domain name that reflects any books or information products that you've created. You can use these domains as sales pages to sell your product as well as protect your brand.

Use redirects-If Janice Jones's main website is JonesCPA.com, all her other domain names can be set up to automatically transfer visitors to that main site. Using redirects enables visitors to arrive at your website, even if they accidentally type a slight alteration. You can also redirect your product domain name to the correlating page on your main website.

Buy common misspellings of your domain name-What if our fictional accountant's name is Janice Kavanaugh? She would be wise to purchase the domain names KavanaughCPA.com and CavanaughCPA.com.

Buy domain names with hyphens-In print, domain names with hyphens are easier to read. Also, buying versions of your domain names with hyphens can help protect your brand.

Use www.webtivitydomains.com to brainstorm and find available names-This website offers an easy tool to quickly brainstorm oodles of potential domain names for your business. You can purchase domain names at WebtivityDomains.com, GoDaddy.com, and multiple other websites.

Make the investment now, don't wait-If you have an idea for a book or information product that you may someday create, be sure to snap up the available domain name now. Great domain names are rare and precious commodities!

When selecting a great domain name, explore lots of possibilities, think about what various domain names might communicate to prospects and clients, and have fun!

Choosing a Web Site Development Firm - What you need to know

By Jayna Lowe

Start with collecting a list of design firms by searching online and asking friends for referrals. Theoretically you could locate any web development firm in the world to produce your website, however there are some advantages to choosing a local firm, especially if you are less experienced with the process. You will have the benefit of meeting and discussing ideas face-to-face, and if you require other services such as photography and video production, you have the option of doing everything 'under the same roof.'

Once you have generated a list of web design firms, narrow your options down to the best 3 - 5 firms you feel suit your requirements by doing a little more research. First, check out each design firm's portfolio for consistent quality in the projects they have produced. Have they provided solutions for other companies in your industry? By examining their portfolio, you should be able to grasp a better understanding of styles and variety that they will be able to offer. What technical applications will your website require? Check out if the design firm has provided solutions to the challenges you are facing. Do they provide ecommerce solutions? Do they offer hosting?

Determine what other products / services the company can offer for your future covenience. Does the design firm offer printing solutions that will enable them to deliver your print needs from concept to completion? Do they offer e-mail marketing software for email marketing campaigns? Photography, video & audio production and copywriting are all value-added services that could be considered.

The more defined your website ideas and marketing objectives, the smoother your project will run. To further define your companies goals and objectives take the time to consider and answer the following:

Who is your target audience?

What is your intended goal for the project?

What is your message?

What are the technical requirements for your website? (Ecommerce, SEO, video?)

Timeframes?

Budget?

Think about your favorite styles, and collect a list of your favorite websites. A good development firm will be able assist you in developing your ideas further and give you feedback on attaining your objects.

Review and compare proposals and presentations. How was their response time? Did the firm demonstrate an understanding of your objectives? Are they able to meet all your needs? Can they deliver on time? Once you are satisfied the web development firm can meet all of your requirements - contact the firm and get started!

Dress Your Sales Pages For Success - 5 Tips For Creating Appealing Sales Pages

By Elizabeth Adams

You can dramatically improve the effectiveness of your sales pages by dressing up their visual presentation.

When you do this, your sales pages will be:

• easier to read,
• easier to understand, and
• aesthetically pleasing.

If, on a an effectiveness scale of 1-10, your sales page ranks somewhere between 1-3, you can quickly and easily improve them by applying 5 simple design tips. When you do, the effectiveness of your sales pages can take a quantum leap.

The 5 tips you will want to apply to every sales page are

1) Line Length:

Shorten your line length to about 60 characters.

Beyond about 60 characters, the human eye has a hard time finding its way back to the first letter of the next line. People tend to simply stop reading rather than to continue the struggle.

2) Font Type:

Switch to Verdana or Tahoma because they have rounder letters and a more "open" look that makes them much easier to read on the screen.

A "squeezed-up" font like Arial is difficult to read on the screen because the skinny letters seem to run together, especially in large blocks of text. People will leave it and go on to something else.

3) Font Size:

Increase your font size to 16-pixels so that it looks like 12-point Verdana in an email. This makes your sales copy easy and inviting to read.

Characters that are too small cause eye strain for many people, and a whole long scrolling page of itty bitty characters is just simply too daunting for them.

4) White Space:

Increase your margin/padding so that the overall effect looks like a regular letter with a 6-inch line and a 1½" margin on the left and a 1" margin on the right, laying on a desktop of deep blue, for preference, but other colors are all right, too.

White space is actually a "design element" and web pages with too little white space appear cramped and constipated.

5) Micro Headlines:

Bold the first few words of each paragraph as a way of leading the eye into reading the rest of it.

Many paragraphs of text without a break tend to intimidate readers to the point where they'll scroll right past it. In order to get them to *read* each paragraph, you've got to catch their attention and *sell* them on the idea of reading the rest it.

These 5 "dress-for-success" changes will make a big difference in how inviting your sales page appears to the person who has just landed on it.

Why Should You Invest in a Good Design For Your Website?

By Ryan Ginster
For most people, their website is their shop-front. This is where they conduct their businesses from. The website plays a significant role in deciding the impression for their business, and gives people evidence that your business really exists. If you are operating online, people will not know you are for real unless you have a good website laid out for them. In the online world, the cover is just as important as the book. That is the reason why your website design must rock.

This is quite analogous to the brick and mortar companies. No one will want tumbledown premises for their office or their employees to be dressed in shoddy wear. Just as looks are important in physical offices, website design is important in online businesses. The message you are sending out with a great website design is - we care about quality!

Your website must not look like Frankenstein's monster that has been put together in bits and pieces. This is akin to standing on the tallest steeple in your town and proclaiming to everyone that you are unprofessional and you care two hoots for quality and impressions.

Rather, if your website is professionally designed, people will know that you give attention to everywhere. This means you are professional. It means that you are well-organized and you are here for real business, and not just a college-time hobby.

Good design extends to everything related to your company. All your stationery must be great to look at - this includes your business cards, letterheads, promotional brochures and everything else. These are the representatives of your business. You cannot afford them to be shabby and shoddy and malign your business where it really matters - in the eyes of your potential customers.

Ten Things You Should Know About Search Engine Optimization

By Sandra Lightowler

Studies have shown that e-mail is the most popular Internet application, followed by search. With the profusion of websites that deal with the similar topic, the competition to get to the top of search engine ranking is very intense. After all, the higher your website is ranked the more traffic you are likely to get; and higher traffic ultimately translates to higher income.

The techniques used for achieving high search engine ranking are called search engine optimization, more commonly known as SEO. Because SEO is still in its infancy, there is still a lot of trial and error in finding the perfect strategy. There are however, a few techniques that are popularly used by website owners to help enhance search visibility and achieve a higher search ranking for their websites.

Here a few factors to take into consideration when deciding on a strategy to improve your search engine ranking:

1. All major search engines including Google have their own different search algorithms for ranking web pages. It is almost impossible to get to know what these secret algorithms are and even if you did, it would be impossible to satisfy them all.

2. Do a fair bit of research before choosing your keywords. Using the keywords as your major competitors may be an exercise in futility as they obviously have more resources and have already established themselves. Employ tools such as Wordtracker which is excellent for helping with keyword research.

3. Focusing on increasing your traffic is more financially rewarding than working to simply increasing your search engine rankings. You may succeed in getting a higher ranking with some ambiguous keyword, but that definitely does not guarantee traffic.

4. Don't get taken in by SEO firms that offer to submit your site to different search engines. Search engines have their own spiders that crawl the internet, following different links that take them from one site to the next. They do not require any site to be submitted.

5. Remember that what counts with links is that they should be from related sites. Getting links from sites that are not related to yours are detrimental to your site ranking and should not be sought after.

6. Avoid seeking links from Link farms. Cottoning on to the fact that several websites were using link farms to increase the number of links to their site, major search engines now penalise those websites that get large number of links using artificial means.

7. Create your content for your users. Developing gateway pages that are crammed with keywords is sure to have a detrimental effect on the quality of your content. And content that does not meet certain standards is not going to entice your readers to come back for more.

8. Text links fare better than images, primarily because search engines are incapable of determining the contents by scanning the images. Instead, your site will be assessed by the words that are present in the source code.

9. Search engine crawlers are also incapable of indexing Flash. This means static HTML text usually fare better than sites that are flash based and should be used whenever possible.

10. It often takes time to climb to the top. A lot of patience combined with following some of the basic rules of search engine rankings is sure to pay off in the end. Don't be deterred by rumours of Google sandbox, where new sites are barred from achieving a high ranking for several months. These are just baseless rumours and nobody has proven whether or not it really exists.

Should You Use A 'Splash Page' For Your Website?

By Fabian Tan

Some people say that using a splash page as your home page is a bad idea. And that's true. You shouldn't use a splash page as your home page for search engine optimization purposes. Search engines love content, and having a splash page as your home page defeats your purpose of ranking well in the search engines, if that is one of your goals.

A splash page actually is a good idea - if you don't use it as your home page.

For example, a splash page on a traffic exchange is an excellent strategy and it's actually one of the best ways to eke out results from traffic exchanges.

You can set your splash page as an extension. For example, yourdomain.com/splash.html. Then use that for appropriate marketing channels. A splash page works well to get a visitor interested in a site because it's consistent two-step marketing. Get someone to do something, and he is likely to follow-up on whatever you tell him to do next!

So go and create a simple splash page now and use it for marketing channels like traffic exchanges, classified ads, pay per click ads etc. Splash pages are uncannily effective when the situation calls for something less cluttered and more attention grabbing. For the traffic sources mentioned above, splash pages definitely fit the mold.

Hire a graphic designer to create a snazzy graphic for you to use on your splash page. After all, the goal of your page is to capture immediate attention! You can even create a simple Flash movie or even include a video there.

Web Site Maintenance Essentials

By Stacy Hensley

We all know that the design of any site is a key factor to building traffic that keeps coming back. Another key factor to keeping people interested is web site maintenance. When a site isn't maintained regularly it becomes obvious to your visitors and they won't continue to return. If you don't take the time to update the site then they won't waste their time visiting. Below you will learn a few simple maintenance steps to keep your site updated.

First, always keep your contact information updated. If you change email addresses remember to update this on all your sites. Nothing looks worse than when someone tries to contact you and the email is returned or they get an invalid email error.

Secondly, be sure and keep any copyright notices updated. If I visit a site and see the copyright is from 2006 then I know the webmaster doesn't spend much time updating the site. Small things such as this will be noticed by many people. So to keep the site looking professional be sure to do the small updates as well as the bigger ones.

Finally, update your content regularly. Fresh information will keep people coming back to see what's new about any subject. Visitors will see that you regularly add new content and they will come back often to check it out. If it's possible add dates to your content. This let's them see how frequently you update.

Maintenance is just 1 of many key factors to running a successful web site. I find it helpful to set aside a couple of hours on a certain day each week just for updating. This way it is on my schedule of things to do and it doesn't get overlooked. Scheduling web site tasks makes it easy to keep up with what needs to be done at certain times. Running a web site is not always easy, but by putting in the time and effort required you get rewarded with great results.