June 19, 2008
Redlands California is the premier location for living in the Inland Empire. For many reasons, the least of which its location, the city is a highly sought after location both for businesses and residences.
The city of Redlands, located about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, has been referred to as the crown jewel of the Inland Empire. Though many of the orange groves have been torn down to make way for development, there are still plenty of groves that still reside in the city of Redlands. Because of this, along with the scenic hillside, historic downtown area and beautiful Victorian homes, It is like the perfect blend of east coast design with southern California sensibilities.
One thing that is greatly lacking in Redlands is an abundance of design firms that are able to keep up with the emerging trends of the city. Redlands web design is like many elements of the city, charming old. This becomes a problem when you are considering that in web design old is bad. It is not really the cities fault, as they are not the trendiest of residence, but it is time for them to grow to the next level. Hopefully some of the newer firms in town will help with the Redlands web design problem.
One wonderful landmark is the city is the old bell tower. The tower was created in 1923 and stands 34 feet off the ground. Perched on top of the main Methodist church it stands as an iconic symbol of what Redlands used to be, and what it now still offers the city.
Next time you are in the Southern California Area, you should check out the city of Redlands. Although their websites are bad, there real sites are amazing.
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May 11, 2008
In today’s age of fast food and high-speed Internet, a business may be tempted to take the “more convenient” route in launching a website - buying a template and customising it.
Website design templates are like off-the-shelf websites and are targeted at people who believe that launching their own, unique and differentiated website is costly and time consuming, which need not be the case.
But what happens when you buy a template, and when looking up your competition on the web, you find that they are using the same template as you! A good example of this happening is the highly competitive real estate business - I have personally discovered 6 (six) South African real estate businesses using the same design template for their website.
Using the example of the real estate business, let’s imagine a guy called Adam wants to look for a new home by looking at several websites.
After browsing a few sites it occurs to Adam that the interface of some of the sites was the same, although the colour scheme may have been different.
After looking at, say six different web sites, he’s decided that he is highly interested in one particular home.
However, poor Adam is at a loss - he can’t remember which real estate company was offering this home! The layout and navigation structure of all the websites are the same and all the websites feature homes for sale in the same format.
None of these real estate businesses benefited from Adams interest in buying a new home - they simply wasted his time and made him feel frustrated. On the bright side, at least Adam won’t remember which real estate businesses made him feel this way!
John Simms is an Internet Marketer for Eiledon Solutions, a website development & design company in Cape Town, South Africa. Visit the website for more info.
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May 8, 2008
Designing an E-commerce Web site is not as simple as having a “pretty” site that is a pleasure to visit. While it is important to have an attractive site, as much thought must be given to functionality as to appearance.
Many Web designers seem to focus more on appearance than functionality, and while an attractive site is helpful, visitors that become frustrated by the inability of a site to function well, will leave almost immediately, never to return!
Just as important in designing an e-commerce-style Web site, is a somewhat basic knowledge of Web site design, with some simple design skills included. While a thorough knowledge of design and functionality is not important, designing an e-commerce site does have some requirements, or else you’ll always find yourself going back relentlessly and changing the features and functionality in a vain effort to stay abreast of your site visitor’s needs.
E-commerce sites need to focus on some main areas of functionality in order to ensure maximum sales:
1. Load time, page size, and navigability. Slowly loading pages, overly large or small pages, and difficult navigation will only frustrate visitors. Visitors should never have to “wait” for a page to load, should never have to scroll back and forth in order to read a page, nor should they have to “search” relentlessly for the information they want in order to purchase. Clean, simple lines, with fast loading, well laid out pages, make the most sales.
Here’s a great service to check your Web site load time:
http://www.tracert.com/
This one actually pings your Web site from different locations worldwide and returns the average load time for your site, instead of simply returning a theoretical value based on the size of your Web page.
2. Less use of graphics. While graphics are pleasant and intriguing, they don’t necessarily achieve more sales. The opposite may be true if too many graphics are used. A page that is graphics heavy loads more slowly and the graphics themselves may take the visitors’ minds off the main purpose of the site, i. e. “sales”. If graphics are used at all, they should be optimized for Web placement, and reduced to the smallest size possible for viewing. Most graphics can easily be reduced by approximately twenty percent without affecting the quality of the graphics.
Here’s a neat tool for optimizing your Web site graphics if you are not very familiar with graphics software:
http://www.netmechanic.com/GIFBot/optimize-graphic.htm
3. The use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). CSS effectively eliminates the need of entering repetitive tags like FONT, reducing your page size significantly. Such tags can consume up to 5-7% of your page size. Imagine how much bandwidth you’ll save if your Web site has more than 100 pages!
4. Breaking the site up into smaller tables as opposed to enclosing the entire body of a site in one large table. This technique enables the page to load in progression rather than make your visitor stare at a blank screen until the page is fully loaded. This is an often overlooked aspect.
5. Use of sitemaps. Sitemaps not only increase rankings and placement within the Search Engines, they effectively give visitors a “guide” by which to view the site, and eliminate confusion on larger sites, such as e-commerce sites. A site map is what its name implies, a road map for your visitors to follow while they are on your site. It’s also a road map for the Search Engines, so a site map serves two very important purposes on an e-commerce site.
6. Content that is keyword rich and well-written will aid in placement within the Search Engines, and keep visitors on a site long enough to purchase. Horribly written sites drive visitors away, while the lack of keywords negatively affects placement and rankings. The writing on any site is the FIRST IMPRESSION potential customers have of you and your products or services, so paying strict attention to the content usually engenders additional sales.
7. Keyword rich title tags will increase traffic overall, and more traffic, of course, means more sales. Title tags help with placement and rankings. Appropriate keywords should also be used for linking internal pages, as this also helps with rankings. Since e-commerce sites are for the most part, larger than personal pages, or other types of sites, the internal linking does lead to more effective initial indexing by the Search Engines also. Care should also be given to the “alt” tags that surround all pictures of products, as non-optimized “alt” tags can lead to poor rankings and placement.
8. E-commerce databases and purchasing procedures that are user friendly. Nothing is more frustrating to future buyers than databases or purchase procedures, that are difficult to use, or that keep going down throughout the process of purchase. A database and purchase procedure, should be easy to use, yet reliable enough to prevent lost sales, or lost monies from sales.
9. A security feature that ensures visitors that personal information is “safe and secure” within the confines of the Web site and that reassures them that their personal information will not be shared nor sold. This is a major concern of online visitors, as the Web is such an “anonymous” type of medium, so any “assurances” as to safety and security will benefit sales.
10. A thank-you page that is presented immediately upon ordering. This ensures “return purchases” as being courteous and polite is always in style and does leave an overall good impression on visitors!
All in all, an e-commerce Web site is significantly different than a personal Home page, or pages of a non-profit organization. The focus of the design and navigation, as well as all other aspects need to focus on the primary purpose of the site, and that of course, is the SALES!
Vishal P. Rao is the owner of: http://www.work-at-home-forum.com/
An online community of people who work at home.
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April 12, 2008
Web design!
Before a few weeks ago, when I heard those words, they went into
my “other” category!
“Other” people, with “other” educations, with “other” minds –
brilliant minds, unlike mine(!) — were the designers of
webpages.
Certainly NOT me!
But that was before I ran across a simple process that taught
me to do it myself!
This process claimed that I could develop a
website.
They claimed it took “no prior web technical
experience.”
Sounds like so much fluff, doesn’t it?!
But here I am, a few weeks later, a new website (of my own!!),
with 45 pages of content! And more to come! (Here’s the website
I’m talking about http://www.ordinaryrunner.c
om/ so you can see that even you can do it!)
And guess what? It makes money. No, not millions(!) in 3 days,
like a lot of websites claim. But certainly, slowly and
steadily, I’ve built a website that will return profits.
All by following a simple plan, spelled out step by step, that
even I (with a basketball coaching degree, no less!) have been
able to follow. Here’s the plan: (http://www.sitesell.com/
ksb.html/)
I’m still wondering if I’ve really done this.
The best plan for making a website is to write VERY GOOD
content for your visitors.
If you’re just out to make money, to gouge customers, etc., then
you’re going to be smelled out! Web users are savvy!
You’ve got to deliver a superior product about an area that you
know something about, and provide, along with your information,
resources for your readers to use.
They have to feel that they are important… And they
better be important to you! Keep the focus on the
visitor, or they’ll click you off!
The problem is, most people don’t know how to write good content
for web users! (Not to mention they don’t know how to do all the
technical stuff!) And I didn’t either!
I had to learn.
Another thing: How do I get people to come? I mean, it wasn’t
like I could build a store on a busy corner, put out a big
flashing sign (”Eat at Bob’s!!”), and wait for people to show up!
I had no idea how to get people to come to a website!
Lucky for me, I learned this technique as well.
And I can’t believe it, but people are starting to come. At
first only a trickle… but then more and more.
And I had to learn how to get listed with search engines, and
directories. You can’t just expect people to stumble across your
website! They’ve got to find you by finding you when they search!
So these are big issues if you’re going to develop a website!
Unfortunately, they’re tough things to learn on your own! There
are people out there who know these things, but their services
are expensive…
Or, I could have tried to learn it all on my own, the
old-fashioned way, by trial and error… but that would take
hours and hours and hours.
And besides, I wasn’t looking for a way to learn to design a
website anyway!
So here, in a nutshell, is what I’ve learned:
1) I must OVERdeliver, and OVERinform with the
content of my webpages. If there’s no value in my
content, people aren’t going to stick around.
What people are really looking for on the web is
information, and they want to find the information they’re
searching for.
So when they type in a keyword and get a page of fluff that’s
just trying to sell them something, they are immediately turned
off.
But…
When they come to your website, and they find not only the info
they are searching for, but much more… and helpful links to
other valuable websites — Well, they stand up and applaud you!
That creates devoted visitors who return.
2) This kind of content also makes them trust you. You are
credible in their eyes.
3) Then (and ONLY then) will they trust you when you
recommend a product!
And then, with a quick click on a link on your site, they go to
the product or service or information that you want them to
find. And often they respond with the very thing you want — a
purchase!
One last thing: It actually took work on my part to design my
own website. And I’m still learning, and still working!
Promises that you’ll get rich quickly and with no effort are
empty ones!
But writing excellent content works!
And if I did it, I know YOU can!!
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April 10, 2008
Online business has now been a trend in the modern day of doing
business. It is an effective way to make product selling and
responding to client orders or comments. With this trend, all of
us are hooked to do it. In order for us to build an online
business, here are the following tips that we need to know:
1. Register a domain. It is important to have this item because
you needed a contact to host the website you are planning. Of
course, you must make bargains with different sectors having
business like this.
2. Hosting account setup. Having a private account for your
website will truly help.
3. Create a simple web site. As we all know it, your website
will say all about your business. It will be your window to
potential clients. So when you make it, be read and be able to
attract huge number of purchases.
4. Upload files to the designated website. All information needs
to be placed in the website for all customers to know what you
are selling or marketing. Give them all the needed data. These
items will now serve as proofs that your product is good enough
to be patronized.
5. Auto-responding component setup. Customers make an inquiry
about a product or service is a nice start up business. For this
reason, an online form that will convince them to make inputs
related to orders, etc. is surely a hit. It is more effective if
you can provide an auto-responder because customers need not to
wait long for your answer.
6. Order process automation. The faster you transact business,
the more you win great number of clients. It is effective to do
it online because majority of the people are hooked on the
internet’s light.
Formulating a Great Idea To build any online business, begin
with its concept. Online business is more powerful than the
method of doing business before. Imagine, everyone has to
personally go to a store to buy items but now you can just do it
in a single click. After clicking the desired item, you will be
prompted to confirm payment details. Before payment was only
done in cash, but now, you need to have an ATM or credit card.
If everything is already done, then that’s it. You will just
have to wait for your ordered item to come in front of your
door. As simple as that!
If you plan to make an online business from the beginning, it is
vital to make sure you are starting with nice ideas for your
business. You must think what you can do best and start from it.
Widen your horizons by doing researches related to your
weaknesses. Make those liabilities of yours into great assets.
By doing these things, you will be a surefire winner of your
endeavor.
What are the in-demand products online? Based from surveys, the
following are the products commonly being bought via internet:
1. Computer products and accessories. It is high-tech world
nowadays and the need for computers and other devices are
increasing. This is a big source of possible sales because it is
will be noticed by the public.
2. Books and other references. Majority of the people loves to
read books of all sorts - it can be fiction or non-fictions,
biographies, academic subjects, fashion magazines, etc.
3. Travel packages. To advertise the latest tour packages and
cool discounts!
4. Clothes. What’s in and what’s hot in the fashion industry is
the usual content of this advertising.
5. Music (audio CDs). We all love music so it is another mine to
make business.
6. Gifts for all occasions. The many occasions we celebrate can
be a good source of income to all aspring online businessmen.
7. Investments. Investing money or capitalizing on a business is
one sure method to attract people. It has big impact because you
are proposing to them a way to make money.
The most important thing when you setup online business or all
businesses is to make a detailed plan. Plans for all the
expenses, the activities involved, the strategies that you will
be doing in your business and other constructive factors. If you
do this, it will keep you motivated throughout your business
from start to end - a successful way on top!
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April 5, 2008
A charity entry in a google search engine optimisation contest
could win thousands of dollars for Oxfam. The aim of the contest
is to rank number one on a google search for the term v7ndotcom
elursrebmem.
http://www.v7
ndotcom-elursrebmem-contest.com has been created with the
sole aim of winning the contest for charity. Several high
profile webmasters and search engine optimisation experts have
already pledged their support and the sites creators believe
that more will follow.
The designers of http://www.v7
ndotcom-elursrebmem-contest.com are hoping that a large
number of webmasters will be interested in this contest but
won’t have the time or resources to take part themselves. By
putting their weight, or back links, behind this charity entry
everybody can take part and win a large sum of money for Oxfam.
Dave Smith, creator of the v7ndotcom-elursrebmem-contest.com
site, also hopes that the contest will raise awareness of how
non-profit organisations can use the internet effectively for
promotion.
http://www.v7ndotcom-elursrebmem-contest.com is not just relying
on people’s generosity to win this contest - it also uses all
the available knowledge of search engine optimisation to create
a site that is clear and easy to navigate with lots of useful
information.
Key features of the site include a blog which will be updated
throughout the contest and a live v7ndotcom elursrebmem leader
board which can be easily integrated to any third party website.
Controversy and a certain amount of hype has surrounded this
contest from the start, the official press release for the
contest stated that “John Scott, editor and administrator of
v7n.com, announced the contest on December 20th, with a $1,000
grand prize. Soon afterwards Greg Boser, a web page optimizer,
announced a $1,000 reward for not playing by v7n rules. Two of
Greg Boser’s friends - Mike Grehan and Todd Friesen - then
contributed to the reward pot, bringing the anti-contest grand
prize to $3,000.
Many in the SEO community were outraged by what they saw as an
attack on the popular v7n community, and John Scott in
particular. The blogging community rallied and added $3,000 plus
an iPod to the v7n contest, putting the total at $7,000 and an
iPod for the grand prize winner, with smaller cash amounts to
those who place 2nd through 5th.”
Whatever the motives of the organisers it is clear that this
contest and v7ndotcom elursrebmem is set to be one of the most
discussed topics of the next few months.
If anyone wishes to help
http://www.v7ndotcom-elursrebmem-contest.com win this contest
for charity or are interested in the methods being used to
promote the site please look at our homepage or the FAQ’s
section.
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April 1, 2008
A Double Ad Tracker is an Ad-Tracker that points to an AD-Tracker. It may sound a bit like overkill to have an Ad-Tracker Pointing at another Ad-Tracker but it’s not crazy.
The Type of double Ad-Tracker this article discusses is where you have a Re-Direct Link from your Domain Pointing at a Re-Direct Link from a 3rd party weather it is free or Paid. Here is an Example of a Double Tracking.
We will now explore 7 Reasons why you should Create Double Ad Trackers.
1 - Free Trackers Go out of business
Actually Paid trackers go out of business too. When I was looking for a Free AD-Tracker to use as a Demo for this Article I actually came across more Free Ad tracker Services that were out of business then were in Business.
2 - You Change Your Service.
There are many excellent Places to buy Paid Ad-trackers from. The problem with paid ad-trackers is that once you sign up and set up 100’s of trackers you are reluctant to change your service. If you use Double Trackers you could simply point to the new tracker and the problem is solved. See Cascading Trackers below for details on how to do this.
3 - More Control
Some Ad tracking services especially the Free ones require you to have your web site approved. If you need to Point your tracker at a new URL you may face a delay unless you use double Trackers.
4 - Cascading Trackers - Oh no not the Triple Tracker
Lets Say you want to Redirect many URLS to http://free-Redirect
You Build a Page called http://the-Redirect and Point it to http://free-Redirect
You now Point all you other Redirects to http://the-Redirect so http://the-Redirect1, http://the-Redirect2 …are all pointing at http://the-Redirect. Now if the URL of http://free-Redirect changes you change http://the-Redirect to point to http://free-Redirect-new and all the URLS that point to http://the-Redirect should still work with no change.
5 - Trackers go down for maintenance
If a Tracker goes down for maintenance, right after your expensive ad campaign starts you will be very thankful that you have a Double tracker. You simply Point your Top Tracker to a new working URL.
6 - Brand your Web Site
You get your URL displayed all over the Internet. Not the URL of some Ad-Tracking Service.
7 - Search Engines
The Search Engines see your Domain’s URL all over the Internet not the URL of an Ad-Tracking Service.
Now that you see how easy it is to use Double Trackers and the extra benefits they give you it’s not so crazy is it!
About The Author:
Mike Makler has been Marketing Online Since 2001 When he Built
an Organization of over 100,000 Members
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Copyright © 2005-2006 Mike Makler the Coolest Guy in the Universe
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