Creating Websites
May 16th, 2007 at 05:14pm
Under Creating Websites
Does your small business need a website? Perhaps to sell your goods or services, or to keep in touch with customers, and boost your sales.
Do you want to start a home business? Maybe you’re thinking about creating and selling electronic products, such as ebooks or on-line courses. Or selling as an affiliate, but want your own individual site, rather than an “off the shelf” web page.
Do you want to use…
By Terri
Continue Reading Building a Website - Where to Start
May 17th, 2007 at 05:00am
Under Creating Websites
The Internet is exploding and a lot of companies are thinking about placing a “home page” on the World Wide Web. For maximum impact and user friendliness, keep the following guidelines in mind when designing your web presence.
LOADING TIME. Users will not wait. You have about 10-seconds to catch and keep a visitor. Your home page should load quickly. Ensure this by keeping graphics small and backgrounds simple and by…
By Terri
Continue Reading Design Tips for Your Website
May 17th, 2007 at 05:30am
Under Creating Websites
Make sure your site is a unity. It must be clear to a visitor he is still at the same site. When he clicks a link, he must recognize the connecting page as yours. It must resemble the previous one. The best would obviously be that he recognizes your style, if he happens to accidentally encounters one of your pages. Causing him to think: hey, I have been here before,…
By Terri
Continue Reading Layout of Website
May 17th, 2007 at 05:33am
Under Creating Websites
1. Ease of Use: How “user friendly” are the website creation tools? Are instructions written clearly? Easy to find on the page? Does the site load quickly?
2. Base Price: What is the lowest “entry-level” price. Be sure to check what website creation tools this low-cost version contains before you make a decision. The lowest-price packages are not generally not suitable for home based or small businesses.
3. Price with Full Functionality:…
By Terri
Continue Reading How to Evaluate the Website Creation Tools you Need
May 17th, 2007 at 05:37am
Under Creating Websites
1. You’ll be able to communicate with your visitors. They’ll begin to trust you and get to know you on a more personal level. People will purchase products quicker from somebody they already know and trust.
2. People will revisit your web site to participate on your discussion board or chat room. They will meet other people with similar interests and your web site will become a hang out were they…
By Terri
Continue Reading 10 Reasons to Add a Discussion Board
May 17th, 2007 at 05:41am
Under Creating Websites
If you have your own domain name, you can create a custom 404 error page for your visitors. What does this do for you? It can help you retain visitors who may leave if they get the standard “File not found” page. Such a page looks a little like this:
File Not Found
The requested url /notafile.htm was not found on this server.
That isn’t very appealing to a visitor, and if…
By Terri
Continue Reading Creating Custom 404 Pages
May 17th, 2007 at 05:42am
Under Creating Websites
How many times have you visited a web site lately that had a page so long you thought it would never quit loading? Or you scrolled so much you completely exhausted your mouse? Or worse (for the site owner), you left!
It seems I’m seeing this technique more and more these days, in relation to what I call “cyber info-mercials” which are popping up everywhere selling you little known secrets about…
By Terri
Continue Reading The Cure for Long Web Pages
May 17th, 2007 at 05:44am
Under Creating Websites
A fantastic way to remind your site visitors to come back and visit you is by offering them a quick way to print a page that they can read offline later at their convenience. I personally do this printing process myself, when I am limited to the amount of time I have to read information on a web site thoroughly. When I get a few minutes later, I take along…
By Terri
Continue Reading Make a Print this Page Link
May 17th, 2007 at 05:49am
Under Creating Websites
Consultants, trainers, independents and other small business are jumping on the information highway to make their fortunes on the web. Unfortunately, the large majority of sites by consultants and trainers end up with low hit counts, and bring in almost no business. There’s a reason for that. Most of “us” don’t know what we’re doing. No shame it that…we’re good at what we do but that doesn’t include making websites…
By Terri
Continue Reading 7 Critical Errors Small Businesses Make With Their Site
May 19th, 2007 at 03:32pm
Under Creating Websites
With literally hundreds of do-it-yourself web design programs on store shelves these days, many small businesses have decided to take on webmastering.
Is this a good idea?
YES! It’s a GREAT idea. Not only can you save big bucks, you can make site changes as often as you like and keep your content fresh. For do-it-yourselfers, these changes cost nothing to implement, except time.
By Terri
Continue Reading Web Design Mistakes
May 19th, 2007 at 03:34pm
Under Creating Websites
1. Undifferentiated Products or Services
A surprising number of sites offer products and services with no “online ordering advantage.” This is especially true of health-related items, business services, book and information sellers and MLM reps. You *must* give your visitors a *compelling reason* to buy from you online.
2. Large Useless Graphics
Websters have the need for speed. Yet far too many home pages open with Large Useless Graphics (LUGs) that load slowly…
By Terri
Continue Reading 20 Things you Should Never Have on your Website
May 19th, 2007 at 03:39pm
Under Creating Websites
Improper use of someone else’s trademark in your meta tags can land you in legal hot water. Here’s what you need to know.
A meta tag is an HTML (hypertext markup language) code embedded on a Web page and used to identify its content. Meta tags are powerful tools because they have a direct effect on the frequency with which many search engines will find a website.
Meta tags have been the…
By Terri
Continue Reading META Tags and Customer Confusion
May 19th, 2007 at 03:41pm
Under Creating Websites
Before building a site, every webmaster has to make a decision on what layout method to use. Most seem to go with either a frame or a table-based layout, the latter being more popular in these days. While both of these have their advantages and disadvantages, a frame-based site is usually easier to update. If you happen to have a 200-page site with the same navigation on every page, adding…
By Terri
Continue Reading Using SSI’s to Ease Site Maintenance
May 19th, 2007 at 03:43pm
Under Creating Websites
There are three words which are major keys to success of any web site. Understand these three words and you will find yourself halfway to success on the Internet. Disregard them, and you will always be struggling to find any type of financial success through online marketing.
1. Free
The key word that the entire Internet is built on is the simple word “Free.” It is a word that you will need…
By Terri
Continue Reading Three Words Your Website Can’t Live Without