Make Buying from Your Website Make it Easy

Convincing your prospects to purchase from you is a hard job, but have you ever thought that you're making the process twice as difficult for both parties if your prospects are convinced but don't know how to buy from you? No matter how good you are at convincing your prospects, they won't buy if they find the process cumbersome.

First, you will want to check that people can find your order form easily and hassle-free. You can write a clear, concise paragraph to direct your prospects to your order form so that you can minimize the chances of them getting lost. You can also reduce the chances of losing prospects by putting a prominent link to your order page from every other page on your site.

Also, do you offer multiple payment options? Some people may feel comfortable paying via Paypal, some may only want to pay with their credit card and others might want to send a check. The more options you offer, the better your chances of covering your prospects' desired payment method. After all, it wouldn't make any sense to sell hard to a prospect only to find that they won't be able to pay you when they want to.

On the other hand, you will want to prove that you are a credible merchant. Is your order form secured using encryption technology? You would want to look into SSL for this. You can also offer a money back guarantee so that people will feel confident about buying from you. How about after sales support? Who do they contact when they have problems after purchasing?

Alternatively, you can add customer testimonials, your contact information, address, and so on to boost your prospects' confidence. Make them feel safe about buying something from you, a total stranger to them on the other end of the Internet.

As a conclusion, it would be very pitiful if you sold hard and sold well to a prospect and something goes wrong when he or she is ready to pay. Eliminate any chances of that to maximize your profits!

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Build your Opt-in List Things You Need To Do

Online marketing may have developed a sudden surge these past few years, but many in the know how have felt its rise even from way then. As more internet based businesses are put up, the need to develop new marketing skills and knowledge based on this new medium have arisen. More and more marketing strategies are being discovered and developed to cope with the changing face of business the business world.

The demand for online marketing tips and strategies have drastically grown and a new form of business has been born, internet marketing strategies. While there are companies that are all too eager to help your site and business build a clientele for a fee, there also many ways that can spread the word about your sites subsistence in a more cost free way. One of this is Opt-in email marketing, also known as permission marketing.

Opt-in marketing requires the permission of a willing customer to subscribe to your marketing materials, materials that take form in newsletters, catalogs and promotional mailings via e-mail. The more opt-in marketing mail is sent, the more chances there is to bag sales and more sales. To do this, you must build a list of all those who wants to subscribe to your opt-in marketing list.

From your list, you will get your targeted customer, this is a good list since they already have shown interest in what you have to show and sell since they have willingly signed in for your list. These are the people who have liked what they have seen in your site and have decided they want to see more and maybe even purchase what ever product or service your company and site has to offer.

Many people would think that building their lists would take hard work and a lot of time to build and collect names and addresses. This is not so, it takes a bit of patience and some strategies but in doing this list, you open your site and your business to a whole new world of target market. Take the effort to take your business to a new level, if traffic increase and good profits are what you want, an opt-in list will do wonders for your business venture.

There are many sources and articles in the internet available for everyone to read and follow in building a list. Sometimes they may be confusing because there are so many and there different ways. Different groups of people would have different approaches in building an opt-in list, but no matter how diverse many methods are, there are always some crucial things to do to build your list. Here are four of them.

1) Put up a good web form in your site that immediately follows the end of your content. While some may say this is too soon to subscribe for a website visitors application, try to remember that your homepage should provide a quick good impression. If somehow a website visitor finds something that he or she doesn’t like and turns them off, they may just forget about signing up.

A good web form for subscribing to an opt-in list is not hard to do. Just write a simple short statement about how they would like to see more and get updated about the site. Then there should be an area where they could put in their names and e-mail address. This web form will automatically save and send you the data’s inputted. As more people sign in, your list will be growing.

2) As mentioned in the first tip, make your homepage very, very impressive. You need to have well written articles and descriptions of your site. Depending on what your site is all about, you need to capture your website visitor’s fancy. Make your site useful and very easy to use. Do not expect everyone to be tech savvy. Invest in having good programming in your site, make your graphics beautiful but don’t over do it.

Don’t waste your time making the homepage too overly large megabyte wise. Not all people have dedicated T1 connections, the faster your site gets loaded, the better. Go for a look that borders between simplicity and sophisticated knowledge.

3) Provide good service and products. A return customer is more likely to bring in more business. Even then and now, a satisfied customer will recommend a business always. Word of mouth and recommendations alone can rake in more business than an expensive ad. As your clientele roster grows so shall your list. With more members on the list, the more people will get to know about what you have new to offer.

4) Keep a clean and private list. Never lose the trust your customers have entrusted you. If you provide e-mails to others and they get spammed, many will probably unsubscribe to you. Remember, a good reputation will drive in more traffic and subscribers as well as strengthen the loyalty of your customers.

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Build Your Income With Good Planning

For anything to work well, care must be taken to make firm, workable plans to execute it and the same goes for website designs. With a well thought out website design, you will be able to create a site that generates multiple streams of revenue for you. In fact, may websites turn into online wasteland because they are not well planned and do not get a single visitor. Gradually, the webmaster will not be motivated to update it anymore and it turns into wasted cyberspace.

The crucial point of planning your site is optimizing it for revenue if you want to gain any income from the site. Divide your site into major blocks, ordered by themes, and start building new pages and subsections in those blocks. For example, you might have a "food" section, an "accomodation" section and an "entertainment" section for a tourism site. You can then write and publish relevant articles in the respective sections to attract a stream of traffic that comes looking for further information.

When you have a broader, better-defined scope of themes for your website, you can sell space on your pages to people interested in advertising on your page. You can also earn from programs like Google's Adsense and Yahoo! Search Marketing if people surf to those themed pages and click on the ads. For this very reason, the advertisement blocks on your pages need to be relevant to the content, so a themed page fits that criteria perfectly.

As Internet becomes more widespread, advertising on the Internet will bear more results than on magazines or offline media. Hence, start tapping in on this lucrative stream of profit right away!

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Build A Profitable Opt In List Quickly

You finally realize that you need a good opt-in list. After reading countless articles and sought expert advices and have read many success stories of people creating a small fortune with opt-in lists you finally decide to have one of your own. Then it happens, you think you have known everything there is to know about opt-in lists and have followed their advices to the T and you still weren’t able to make a profit.

In fact, you may be losing money. You maybe hiring writers to help you out, or there are some expenses incurred, even if you have a big list, but only a very small percentage actually buys from you, your still losing profit. You’ll realize that after a few months when you see your statistics and sales figures.

So what could have gone wrong? Why have others succeeded where you have failed? The most common mistake is that you dived straight right in. You chose a topic where you think could be quite popular and would earn you money. This just not the case. Just because you wrote people from the list doesn’t mean they are going to buy instantly.

Here I will offer more advice, for those who have started an opt-in list and have failed, you can rejuvenate your failed venture. For those who are starting, here are three quick and easy ways to build a profitable opt-in list.

1) Get your customers to trust you and your products first. Just launching your opt-in list would not make you an expert and a believable seller. Put many articles first before you start an opt-in list. Write about the topic you know and have started and used for your site. Try to put forums first to gain knowledge about your customers about their wants and needs and target those wants and needs.

Join forums from other sites as well. Provide expert advices and recommendations. When you feel that people trust you already, you will be able to start your own opt-in list. You can build a base as well with other forum users. You can ask them to join your list. Friends are always good customers. Put up a link to your site so that they may be able to see what you're business is all about.

The certain truth is, the money will only come in when the consumers and subscribers believe and trust in you. They want a product or service that could be a good exchange for their money. People are not going to buy something out of your recommendation if they don’t know you.

2) Find a product or service that people want and need. Although it may not be your forte, if you provide a service and product that you have researched and learned about well, you can carry it on forward. Invest your time, effort and money that you could sell as well as the buyers or subscribers of your opt-in list can use.

While it is true that it is best to sell something that you have interest in, there are not many people who have the same interest as you if you decide to sell something that is not entirely popular or profitable. Do your research well and you would see the profits come in. Also provide your subscribers with promotional material that they could actually use and spread around.

3) Make friends with other opt-in list users. This is basically beneficial especially if it is someone who has already launched a successful opt-in list. These are people that have the experience in this venture and experience is still the best teacher. While there are many articles available for you in the internet to use, there is nothing like getting a first hand account from someone you trust.

Experienced opt-in list users will be able to tell you what to do and what not to do because they have gone through it. While different situations occur for different people, the general concept can still be very helpful. There are many things to avoid and these people will be able to tell you which ones.

Building a profitable opt-in list don’t just happen overnight. There are many preparations and effort to do. Opt-in lists are built from scratch, as your list grows, you should also maintain the quality of your list. Keep it organized and manageable. Get or hire help if need be, just make sure that your subscribers are happy and satisfied and they will be willing to buy from you.

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Build A List Of Eager Subscribers

Every online business provides great service to generate satisfaction among their customers. As each and every customer receives satisfaction over their products or the services they get, there is a great chance that they will become a return customer and buy again. Better yet, they will recommend you to other people that could generate more business for you and your site.

As more traffic is driven to your site, you can entice many of them to subscribe to your mailing list or opt-in list. This is a list where in website visitors agree to be sent promotional materials such as newsletters, catalogs and such that could keep them updated about your site or the niche of your site. These promotional materials are sent via e-mail to the members of the list in different time intervals.

When using e-mail as the media of your marketing and advertisements, you eliminate the need for high costs. Email is free and if you can manage to make your own promotional advertisements you can also save a bundle there. With an opt-in subscribers list, you are pretty sure that what you are sending out is received, viewed and read by the subscribers and not simply being deleted. They have signed up for service and have consented in receiving it.

This means that there are constant reminders to your subscribers about all your products, new products and services as well as any promotions and special deals you are having. There is also the chance that they can be forwarded to other potential customers as they tell their friends and families about you and your site.

Of course you should be also aware that a subscriber may unsubscribe when they feel that they are not getting what they want or expected. Make sure that they are satisfied with your opt-in marketing strategies and keep them excited in receiving your newsletters and catalogs. Here are some tips that can help you build a list of eager subscribers.

Make your promotional materials interesting and fun. Try to use a little creativity but not too over artsy. Build around what your product or service is about. For example; if you are selling car parts, put some pictures of what is new in the auto parts world, a new wing door possibly that can fit any car and make it look like a Lamborghini.

Try to research what people are looking for, these way, you stay one step ahead of them all the time and you will be their bearer of new tidings. They will be eager to receive what you are sending them because they new you always have fresh and new things to share with them.

Write good articles that can be very informational but light at the same time. If your subscribers enjoy your articles, they will go to your site by clicking the links that you will be putting on your newsletter to read some more. You can provide articles that can connect to many people. Be diverse in your articles. Put something humorous, then put something informational, then put something that has both.

Are you wary about this because you don’t like writing? No problem, there are many professional and experienced article writers that can do the job for you for minimal fees. They know what they are doing and can provide the need that you have for your newsletters, the money that you pay for your articles are going to be met by the many sign-ups and the potential profit from the sales that you will get.

Create and send an E-book to your customers about anything that is related to your business or site. Use your knowledge and expertise in the field you have chosen to help other people who are similarly interested. Offer this e-book for free. You can write about anything informational and helpful to your subscribers. For example; you can do manuals and guides in so many things. This e-book could be used as a reference for many people.

Share this e-book with everyone, even other sites; just make sure that they don’t change the links in the e-book that will lead people to your site. If you want, you can always get some people to write it for you just like your articles. Your investment once again will be covered by the great marketing this will generate.

Add e-coupons in your newsletters that will help them avail to special discounts. Put a control number in your e-coupon so that they can only be used once. When people get discounts that can be found in your newsletters, they will be eager to receive your newsletter in anticipation of what you are promoting next.

If your subscribers can get benefits from your newsletters, they will be very eager to receive them. Just don’t flood your mailing list with mails so that you don’t annoy your subscribers.

Additional Reading

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Blogs Blogging & Search Engine Optimization

Originally conceived to be something like an online journal for individuals has become yet another tool businesses can use to market themselves online. Web logs or blogs are now being used not just for the sheer purpose of writing, but also as means SEO (search engine optimization) experts use to increase a website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERP).

An interesting thing about keeping and maintaining a blog (also known as blogging) is that anyone can blog. What will make a blog more successful than most is simply a keen sense of its target readership. Of course, it will not harm the blogger (a person maintaining a blog) to possess a few basic skills navigating the Internet and creating links to other websites and blogs.

Bloggers today are finding that they can not only write and publish their thoughts for free, but also can find themselves getting compensated for writing. This is because one of the techniques in SEO is to create content that is rich in keywords, which is basically what search engines look for in ranking web pages in its SERPs.

That said, here are some tips to make your next blog an effective SEO tool.

1, Choose a Theme (and Stick to It)
Most blogs never gain a real readership because it simply is a mishmash of a writer’s thoughts, with very little coherent theme to bind the entire blog together. If the blogger does it for the sheer purpose of a journal, there’s really nothing wrong with that.

However, as an SEO, a blog has to have a theme that will tie all the posts (individual articles) together. This is because instead of just looking for keywords, a search engine will also assess whether the page just happens to have a lot of keywords mentioned in the post or whether the entire blog is about the topic it is searching for. The former will rank less than the former in the SERPs. Given this point, it will do you well to pick a theme that you are interest and won’t tire of writing about.

2. A Place You Can Call Home
Working alongside the idea of a theme, When creating your blog (whether with your own domain name or an a free blog site), give it a URL that has words related to the theme. For example, if you are going to blog about bonsai making, try to use words that are related to that in your blog’s URL (such as www.bonsaienthusiast.com). Name your blog using words that are relevant to your theme as well. Search engines look at these things as well to determine how high your blog could possibly rank.

If you are blogging on a hosting site, it is possible to have your blog delegated into a proper category. This will help make a search engine easier to find your blog given that the category is strongly related to themes and search keywords.

On a related note, your individual posts should also be titled with words that are closely related to your theme. Again, working on a blog with a bonsai theme, one post could be titled “Miniature Trees: How to Get Started” while another one could be “Selecting the Right Pot for a Bonsai”. This will give your posts a URL that is rich in keywords, which helps in a page’s ranking on SERPS (but you already know that, right?).

3. Link And it Shall Be Linked Unto You
Another thing about blogs that SEO experts are finding to become a great advantage is the fact that blogs make it easy to link to other blogs, which in turn makes it easy for other blogs to link to you.

This is yet another criterion a search engine uses to rank a particular page in the results pages. The more incoming links it possess about the keyword in search will increase ranking status because the page shows that a lot of people think what you’ve written is a good source of information.

So when writing on your blog, be sure to take the time to read other people’s blogs and other online articles related to your theme. Create links to them so that you point your readers to more information. This will increase the chances of other people creating links that will point to your blog.

4. Keep it Coming
Since blog content is so easy to create, search engines scour blog sites very regularly. That means if you keep on creating new content on a regular basis, search engines will have to keep up with what’s new on your blog.

By regularly creating fresh content on your blog, search engines will tend to look to your blog first before others that are not maintained and renewed as regularly as you do. It helps in the rankings as well, which is the whole point of this article, right?

These tips are just to get started on using a blog for SEO. As you go along, you’ll find more tricks of the trade that will help you push you up the ranks on SERPs. Of course realistically, don’t expect to rank on the top 3 pages on your first try. But give it a few weeks. And for as long as you keep to the tried and true principles, it may not be that far until you’ve captured a good ranking for your blog.

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Search Engine Optimization Keywords & Tools

Keyword selection is one of the primary procedures to have a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy implemented. It is extremely important that the right keywords are selected by businesses for their advertisements in order to maximize an online advertising service and gain profits. An advertising campaign can be deemed worthless is the wrong keywords are selected to represent it.

In a nutshell, SEO are methods that aim to improve the position or rank of a web site in listings produced by search engines. The benefits of getting a higher placement in the listings increases the chances that online visitors will view their pages and avail of the services offered by advertisers. It also gives visitors a feeling of security, because to them, a well-positioned ad equals high credibility.

Sites have different goals when it comes to optimization. Some sites employ broad search optimization strategy, they are in search for all traffic that comes along the way. It can be useful for sites that are generates broad interest, such as a directory or a periodical. Other sites go for utilizing keywords that are highly specific, and radiate the probability of a sale. In most cases, going for specific and carefully chosen traffic can prove advantageous, because it gives sales leads with more quality.

The process of choosing the appropriate keywords for a particular advertiser is not a simple task. An advertiser has to accomplish several things to pull it off successfully. First, the advertiser has to be well acquainted with the machinations of its target market. A thorough research into the keywords used by the competitor should be carried out, and whatever result that it will produce should be analyzed in detail. Keyword selection tools will assist advertisers in determining the keywords that is most suitable for their businesses.

Keywords selection can have many varieties, largely depending on the kind of web site that a client needs. These are the major types, static sites and dynamic states, where the former is more limited in terms of keyword numbers compared to the latter. If an advertiser is creating a brand new site, it is recommended to choose the initial number of keywords that will be needed, and afterwards, the architecture of the site can be prepared using the keyword selection criteria as a basis.

After coming up with the keyword list, the terms should be trimmed down up to the specific and necessary ones. In narrowing down the list, keep these factors in mind: Majority of the search engines do not bother doing word stemming, and that most visitors type keywords in lower case, and it is less difficult to gain a good rank for keyword phrases that are longer.

Here are some of the popular keyword selection tools available for advertisers:

1. Google AdWords Keyword Selection Tool
Google is the most successful search engine in the world, and it takes in more searches in the web than its competitors. This tool usually comes with the awards program of Google, and it shows the keywords that are actually utilized by users. Google AdWords provide users with the most sought-after queries, vast matches, and other keywords that the user may consider for usage.

2. Wordtracker
It is a database that people utilize as queries for searching terms. Aside from giving information on how often a term is utilized for web search, it will also inform users the number of competing sites that utilize the same term. The tool aids in finding combinations of keywords that is in any way related to the content of a web site.

3. Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool
A keyword selection tool that provides the number of searches in a month that proliferated within the Overture network. It provides the variations and phrase stems when a certain keyword is used. It also provides pay-per-click bids and a ROI Time CPM Calculator.

4. Keyword Destiny and Prominence Analysis
A keyword analysis tool which analyzes the words utilized on a web page by applying default settings or custom report options. It also reports on the number of times the word was used, and an analysis of a competitive URL. Other information provided includes word count, prominence values, the location of the significant keywords in the elements of the page, and density percentages.

Advertisers should choose the best tool that works for them. With various options available, it will not be too difficult to do so. Picking the right tool can make wonders for their business ventures.
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Maintain Your Website Traffic

How do you build a steady stream of website traffic for your site?

Submissions to web directories.

For some internet marketers, web directories are not something they would have preferred if only they are given a choice. But without a doubt, web directories are sure-fire ways of driving website traffics.

These directories are effective ways of building PR (page rank) that helps websites get good rankings in the Google search engine. Google uses page ranks to grade the results based from the searches that visitors are making. Having a higher PR is having a better listing compared with others.

PR is based on the backlinks that you have and its quality. So it follows that the more backlinks you have, the higher your PR will be. You will also get better rankings.

This is the essence behind using web directories and linking. Once these combinations have worked successfully, you can expect an increase in your website traffic.

To get a list of web directories, all you have to do is type in the keyword in the search engine. Then, all you need to do is choose from among the number of lists given.

Linking like crazy to other websites.

Ok so maybe submitting links is not really an easy task. Since there are not many computer-generated linking technologies yet, you have to submit them manually. But if you think of the benefits you will be getting from these links, it will be worth all the trouble.

Having a good content is important in making genuine backlinks.

There are two effective ways of doing this:

First, is the use of media or downloads. It is a fact that majority of website visitors are very much inclined to downloading and media. In addition, many people welcome them as something different from the usual wordings they encounter most of the time.

You will notice that once you have created a number of these on your site, the number of websites traffic you are getting will double. People are likely to come back to check on if updates to the media that you have on your site.

The second one is article writing. The good thing about articles is that you can post them to as many sites as you can, as long as their theme is related to yours. This way, you can have your backlinks spread all over the Internet through the resource box placed at the end of each article. With your articles, you get to reach more consumers that you cannot normally do if your article is only posted on your site.

Besides, articles are well-loved by search engines. Provide them with quality contents and you are sure to be read by these engines.

Giving more of your attention to search engines.

Search engines play an important part for all internet marketers. They are a great way of driving website traffic. Google rankings are depending heavily on the backlinks used and the page ranks of each sites.

Going to forums or discussion pages.

This is a way of getting your message out while generating website traffic in the process. Just like web directories, you can just type in the keywords on the search engines to get a list of forums you can join.

You may have noticed that some people posts questions on forums. If you find that they are somehow related to your topic, fell free to answer the query being asked.

To register in forums, put in your URL. On the signature part, put a short description about your website. If you are planning on posting regularly to these forums, you can also change signatures to display the development happening on your website.

If you maintain your posts on a regular basis, you can have a steady flow of website traffic.

These are just some of the many ways you can do to be able to drive traffic to your website. There will always be new and easier ways of doing this. But for now, these are the ones being widely used. They also have proven their usefulness in the online marketing world.

Keep on using these strategies in order to maintain your website traffic. You can always come up with your own also.

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Internet Marketing Techniques

The success or failure of your Internet marketing business depends largely on the Internet users. If they are interested on the products and services that you are offering for sale, definitely you can expect hundreds to thousands of dollars in revenues from your online business. On the other hand, if they are just too lazy to hear what you want to say and what you are offering, better shut down your personal computer unit and find some other ways of earning money.

As an Internet marketer, you do not want the second scenario to happen to your Internet marketing career. To be the “exception to the rule”, you must attract more web visitors to your site and turn them into long-term clients and build a loyal clientele base. Once you have satisfied such requirements, expect that there is something in return—positive returns, to be specific.

How will you say to Internet users that you need them to keep your online business alive? In fact, you need not to tell them straight to the point that you badly need them. All you need is a clever mind and some online advertising to get them without making them realize that you badly need them.

There are various online advertising methods on the Internet and each method has their product that works better on specific industries. There are huge numbers of individuals and companies operating online who wants to advertise what they have to offer, and there are also huge numbers of individuals and companies on the Internet who are willing to provide some advertising spaces. However, considering that the online advertising market is quite large, it will be inefficient for the advertisers as well as the providers of these online advertising spaces to individually meet and talk about the terms of conditions of advertising.

The individual or company who wish to advertise will certainly contact an online-based advertising company that are willing to provide the space that the advertiser needs as well as distribute their advertisements to different venues on the Internet at the same time.

The more benefits are now towards the online advertising firm. And you are considering an online advertising business.

But before you go, there are several things you need to consider first.

Start to gather a collection of websites or online companies that are willing to place advertisements on their sites. Select sites that are getting high web traffic every month. Once you have gathered advertising site venues, you may now start soliciting advertising clients. These advertisers will pay a certain amount of money that will commensurate with the exposure of their products or services on your advertising site venues. For instance, if you have contracted with 20 websites that are receiving an average of 200,000 web visitors every month, you can sell as much as 2,000,000 advertising exposures every month on each advertiser. In case that you have negotiated around 20 advertising venues on each website, you can sell an equivalent of 20 advertising clients with 2,000,000 advertising exposures every month. If an advertiser only pays for 1,000,000 advertising exposures, you can still sell the remaining 1,000,000 advertising exposures for a total of 11 advertising clients.

Now, what are the types of online advertising that you can offer? Here are some of the offerings that you can sell to individuals or companies who wish to advertise their products or services on the Internet.

• Banner ads- these ads are typically pictorial ads that are commonly viewed on high-traffic sites and includes a hyperlink back to the advertiser’s own site. These are priced according to the number of ads shown. For instance, banner ads can be sold in lots of 250,000 impressions each.
• Sponsorship ads- these ads are commonly larger than banner ads, which sometimes contain considerable amount of text. These are typically placed on high-traffic areas such as ezines or online newsletters. It is priced according to the number of readers of the newsletter or publication in which the ad is placed.
• Pay per click (PPC) ads- these ads are priced according to the number of clicks generated through site visitors, These are commonly text ads, though there are PPC ads that are pictorial-based.

Starting your own online advertising business is another opportunity of earning more money on the Internet marketing industry.

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Internet Marketing Forum

Engineers, doctors, nurses, accountants, and lawyers.

They are what we call as professionals. They are individuals with recognized knowledge and expertise on a certain field of endeavor. They are entitled by law and existing policies to practice their respective professions. They are worthy of the standards of their profession, giving them legal licenses to practice their respective professions. Thus, they are the “authorities” in their respective field of endeavors.

Along with their tag as professionals, these individuals are bounded by proper etiquette with regards to their actions and behaviors. As professionals, they are expected to deliver required services to the public and at the same time deal with other individuals and professionals in an appropriate manner. They are looked upon as leaders; thus they are expected to act as real professionals when dealing with their work and other people.

Professionals are everywhere—in various construction sites, real estate markets, hospitals, county courts, and other places. Even the Internet marketing industry is surrounded by various professionals—Internet business consultants, web content writers, software developers, web designers, and others.

Thus, the Internet marketing is a pool of web-based professionals who are working not just for their personal interest but for the development of the industry as well. But what does it take to be considered as one of the Internet marketing professionals?


As previously mentioned, the definition of a professional revolves around the concept of “an individual who has recognized knowledge and expertise on a certain field of endeavor”. As a professional, you are considered to be worthy of the standards of your profession. You need to show to the world that you are really worth to be considered as a professional through creating a professional image.

However, building a professional image is not as easy as you think. In fact, it entails a great deal of time and effort. Your knowledge and expertise is not just the working factor here. You must also consider the conduct of your business in a professional manner, especially on the Internet where you are dealing with clients whom you do not know and you do not see.

Now, how will you start building your professional image? Consider the following aspects in creating your image on the Internet marketing industry.

• Your attitude is among the most essential aspects in creating your professional image on the Internet. It can either make you or kill your career in an instant. The manner you deal with your fellow Internet marketers, clients, and the concerns they want you to answer such as questions, comments, and compliments will reflect on your professionalism as a reputable Internet marketer.

• Courtesy is also an important factor. As previously mentioned, you are dealing with people whom you are not seeing and you do not know. Despite of that gap, make your “unseen” clients feel that they are very much appreciated. You must be respectful and warm in accommodating their queries and concern. Even in words, always express your gratitude to them.

• Honesty is the best policy. Do not mislead your web-based clients or else you will lose them. Remember that you have to earn their trust for you to build long-term relationships with them.

• When dealing with your clients, always go above and beyond their expectations. Always listen to the concerns of your clients. As a professional, you are expected to hear from your clients even if you know and understand most of the aspects of your Internet marketing business.

• Unsatisfied clients always complain about poor technical support. You need to make yourself personally available to assist your clients with their needs. If possible, respond to their emails and return their call as fast as possible.

• Although it is a loss if you will refund the money of unsatisfied clients, you need to. Do not argue with the issue or blast nasty things unto them. Always be apologetic, courteous, and know why they are unsatisfied. Remember the rule that “customers are always right”, even if you feel that they are wrong.

• Your website is the reflection of yourself and your Internet marketing business. It must be professional-looking, complete with product and contact information, and easy ordering protocol.

• Be respectful to your fellow Internet marketers. Keep in mind that you must build a friendly competition on the business and not on personal preferences.

Internet marketing professionals possess those aforementioned aspects. Thus, before getting respect from the Internet community, show to them that you are worthy of their respect and build a professional image on the Internet.

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Free and Low-Cost Internet Marketing Alternatives

Starting an Internet marketing business is probably the best way of growing a residual income and at the same time achieving financial freedom. It really sounds easy and fun, yet there are several things that will cross your mind—things that will probably stop you in starting your own Internet marketing business.

Time and financial resources.

You need to accept the fact that in order to make money, you must have sufficient time allotment and financial resources. It is not advisable to start your online business if you feel that you do not have that financial capability of sustaining your own business in the long run.

Getting large web traffic to your online business site is your main priority in starting your Internet marketing business. You will be able to achieve it through advertising your site. However, when you found out that the cost is not within your reach, there is a slim chance that you will achieve success in getting traffic and converting them into long-term clients. Keep in mind that without a strong clientele base, it will mark the end of your Internet marketing career.

Is there any other way to escape expensive online business advertising?

Keep in mind that the word “free” still exists.

In other words, there are still low-cost alternatives and even free methods of advertising your Internet marketing business. You must be confident that such free or low-cost advertising alternatives will work, after all it is still a type of promotion that will help you get the targeted traffic that you need for your site. It does not necessarily follows that free or cheap advertising will not work effectively whereas expensive advertising mediums will always work. Invest confidence and a “clever thinking” on how you will be able to make it as effective as the expensive advertisement packages on the Internet.

As previously mentioned, there are many ways of advertising your online business without spending much of your fortune. The best idea that you must consider is writing original articles containing fresh and juicy information that will help your website visitors know about your business and the products and services that you are offering. Write your own original articles and sign with free or low-cost article distribution services that will distribute your articles to publishers around the Internet. If you want a wider distribution of your articles for increased awareness, you may pay for a small fee. Once your articles are distributed and published around the Internet with hyperlinks directing to your site, you will have your first set of new web visitors in no time. If you do not want to write the articles by yourself, you can hire different article writing services that will do the job in exchange of a small fee. Article writing and distribution is one of the best means of Internet marketing promotion.

Just like article writing, you may also use weblogs or simply blogs for your Internet marketing business promotion. This is completely free of charge and an ideal way of getting quality content on your website as well as getting repeated visitors who are interested in reading what you want to say. You can write your views about your business or include some photographs of the products you are offering. Do not forget to include your site’s link on your blogs so that your readers can visit your site if they want more information about what you have written on your blogs.

Posting to online forums is another free yet effective way of getting your hyperlinks noticed by majority of Internet users. There are thousands of online discussion forums out there that offers subjects related to the nature of your online business. You may also help other individuals by posting your comments or suggestions that you know with regards to a certain issue. The more assistance that you can offer, the more your name will stand out of the crowd as the authority on the subject, and the more likely forum readers will click on your website hyperlink to find out more about you and what you are into. It is one of the best ways of making sales without even selling actual products or services.

Why spend a lot if there are free and low-cost advertising alternatives for your Internet marketing promotion? With some careful planning and little spending, you will be able to earn a lot from your online business.

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Fonts to Improve Website Readability

There are many factors that affect the usability of a web site. To make sites noticeable to users, site owners must make use of attractive design and functional content. The usage of fonts is one of the factors that can draw or veer away visitors to a web site. Good fonts are important because it has an effect on how fast users can read whatever content that is present on the computer screen.

Fonts are utilized to make the majority of the web page elements, such as navigation bars, buttons, links, and menus. It is the text that will express most of the web site's content.

At present, the fonts that are commonly used in the Internet are Times New Roman, a serif font, and the Arial, a sans serif font. The primary edge of serif fonts is that it is more comfortable to read it on paper, because serifs help individualize each letter. However, this advantage can be rendered useless when the fonts are viewed on computer screens, since factors such as screen resolution can affect the clarity of texts.

So how do fonts influence the overall usability and legibility of a web site?

There are two major categories of font faces:

1, Serif
These are fonts that contain small appendages in the upper and lower part of a letter. Examples are Times New Roman, Century, Bookman and Courier. These are the choice faces to be used for large quantities of text.

2. Sans-serif
These fonts have only primary line strokes, and possess a simpler shape. Examples of these fonts are Futura, Helvetica, and Arial. They are usually utilized for short phrases.

Font style pertains to the usage of elements such as italics, underlining, and boldfaces to give better emphasis to the contents of a page. It is not advised to utilize underlining on web pages, since most of the users are used to associate underlining with links. Boldfaces should be used in a strategic way. Too much usage of boldfaces can be distracting from the content, since they are extremely visible. Since italics are not very legible on the screen, they should be used infrequently, just enough to provide emphasis and definition to terms.

Avoid using absolute font sizes. Doing so may hinder users the ability to adjust the sizes of the text to go along with the specifics of display devices that they are using. It is recommended to let users manipulate the size of the texts, especially if one plans to keep the web pages short.

Choosing font colors should be done with care, it should maximize the legibility of the text in contrast to the background of the page while setting it apart from colors used for links. For light backgrounds, one should used fonts in black, dark green, dark brown, and dark blue. If the background is dark, fonts in white, pale green, and pale orange should be used. If possible, use only one or two font colors in a page, excluding the colors for the link pages.

There are images that look like fonts. Avoid using them. There are several reasons why one should not utilize .jpg or .gif images to acquire special effects. First, images takes a long time to download, and when it appears, the quality is not the same as the text produced by the by browsers. Second, there usually is a problem when resizing images. Third, these images cannot be recognized by voice-enabled browsers.

It is said that Sans serif fonts should be used for standard and top-of-the-line web site designs, specifically the Arial and the Verdana. It is recommended to use the same font throughout a page, but headline sizes can be added and the subheadings can be written in bold form to prevent monotony. Again, it is preferable to give users the ability to control the size of the texts, since some of the users can be visually-challenged.

Some studies show that fonts that are tinier than 10-point gets slower reaction from users. It is advisable to use fonts that are at least 12 or 14-point in size when it comes to people over the age of 65.

The quality of a well-designed web site is that it can be accessed and used by people from all walks of life. Web sites should be designed to suit everyone who will be able to visit them.

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Internet Advertising and Marketing

Internet marketing is surrounded by facts that every aspiring online entrepreneur should know. Although you have heard several success stories about individuals who succeeded and earned thousands to millions of dollars through Internet marketing, they are also bounded by these facts existing around the industry.

First, just like the typical business investment, you cannot make a fortune overnight on Internet marketing. Successful Internet marketers have spent several years to perfect their marketing strategies. They have started from studying the “ins and outs” of the business opportunity, applied existing strategies, formulated their own marketing strategies, and test their new strategies to their marketing business. Although Internet marketing offers a lucrative business opportunity for everyone, it takes some time before you could earn millions of dollars through Internet marketing. You will start from several hundreds and after several months or years, you will be able to earn thousands of dollars on Internet marketing revenues.

Second, your competitors will always be your competitors. There are instances wherein they will use you for their advantage. Of course, we do not want to ruin friendships here, but it is a fact that you must be careful of. You can work hand in hand with other Internet marketers, but you must ensure that you are not working with “hungry predators” or those who will not use your generosity for their advantage of earning more money.

Lastly, getting potential clients is the hardest part of your Internet marketing career. Remember that the success of your Internet marketing business will depend on how you will attract potential clients coming from the majority of traffic around the Internet. Even if you have a well-designed website with useful facilities such as information catalogs and shopping cart services, once you failed to attract large web traffic towards your site, your Internet marketing business will be of total failure.

Among the aforementioned facts, the last one is what you need think of most. As previously mentioned, the success of your Internet marketing career depends on how you build your clientele base. Such clientele base will serve as your “bloodline” that will keep your marketing career alive. Without them, the Internet marketing industry will remain to be a dream for individuals who want to earn more money.

If you want to attract potential clients and convert them into loyal product evangelizers, you must learn the whereabouts of Internet marketing promotion and advertising. Promoting and advertising your Internet marketing is crucial to your website and to your career as well. Through these strategies, you will be able to attract motivated people who are willing to purchase whatever you are offering. Taking time to create some buzz about your website will keep them coming back and create an intriguing impression to those individuals who haven’t got a try of your products or services.

Promotion and advertising will help you get the targeted traffic that you want in the early run of your Internet marketing career. In fact, the cost of promoting and advertising your site on the Internet is not as expensive as advertising your products and services through conventional methods such as billboards and classified ads of different newspapers. Even if you do not have that large marketing budget, you can still promote and advertise your site using various alternative and low-cost promotional methods.

So what are the characteristics of a good Internet marketing promotion and advertising? Take a look on the following items and make sure that your promotion and advertising tools possess these characteristics:

• It must have a long-lasting effect. Do not just use an advertising medium once and discard it. Find ways on how you will be able to use it for several times. You may use a similar approach on each advertising tool and create customer familiarity with the advertising tool as well as the product or service you are advertising. Think of several successful promotions and advertisement such as for Energizer batteries and others.
• An effective Internet marketing promotion and advertising have variations. Do not just stick with a single ad format. Change the color, text, and the message of your advertisements but do not alter its feature character. The alterations must be done in the consideration of a long-lasting ad effect.

Do not be afraid to explore new options. If you think these new ideas will help you promote and advertise your Internet marketing business effectively, then do it. The more you broaden your promotion and advertising efforts, you will be able to succeed in your Internet marketing business career.
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Website Frames Increase Usability

The issue of website usability has garnered much attention today. In fact, there have been laws and legal moves against website developers who wouldn’t take into consideration the wide range of people who will be viewing their websites.

The issue of usability has been founded on the context that there are a lot of people who are disabled or impaired in some way. In America alone, there are 1 out of 5 people who are disabled in one way or another.

The Internet has provided us with ways to communicate, interact, exchange information and do business. It is a pertinent tool in providing much needed avenues for accessing these things especially for people who are disabled. This is why usability has been a pressing issue in terms of website development.

Frames and website usability

One of the ways which can increase the usability of a website is the proper use of frames. Frames basically segment the browser into different portion and each portion is independent from the others. There are two major schools of thought when it comes to the use of frames: one that says frames should not be used and one that says that there are advantages to using frames in website development.

This article tries to give guidance on the use of frames in website development. The ultimate aim of website development is to make it easier for more people to use the website, whether with the use of frames or without them.

Why not use frames?

There are a lot of negative thoughts when it comes to the use of frames in websites. Here are some of them:

Printing

There have been many complaints about printing web pages that are framed. Internet browsers seem to select the frame to be sent to the printer randomly. The user cannot usually print the frame that he wants because the computer selects the frame which is the focal point of the webpage.

Downloading

Many newbies in the field of website development employs frames to be able to cut the downloading time of their websites. This can only be achieved if the right ways of presenting the content are achieved. Other contents such as style sheets, images and scripts are recommended to be cached.


Linking

Using frames which contains third-party information can raise issues of infringement of copyrights and trademarks.

Bookmarks

Visitors usually cannot mark the particular frame that he wants when using framed websites. The basic structure of frames deviates from the normal structure of unification of the “website.” This can cause problems in bookmarking.

Search engines

Search engines encounter problems when indexing framed sites. This is a result of the frames paradox. The “spiders” of the search engines are drawn to what developers refer to as black hole pages.

Over-all usability

Surfers may become confused with the structuring of a website which uses frames. The provision of multiple scrollbars will definitely add to the problem. If a designer hides the scrollbars, the contents of the website may become inaccessible.

Advantages in Using Frames

There are also some key advantages in using frames. Many people are still lured to use frames in their websites and listed below are some of the explanations why they are inclined to do so:

Ease in designing

One of the key features of the usage of frames in websites is that it makes the job easier for the developer. When a developer employs frames, he is relieved of the task of putting the logos and navigation menu on every single page that he will develop. Frames can contain this information and need not to be copied every time a user clicks another page of the site.

Flexibility

Frames provide a surfer several mini-browsers which he can view all at the same time. This allows for more flexibility in terms of getting more work done or getting more information for a single viewing of the webpage.

Quicker downloads

With the use of frames, different site contents need not be downloaded every time a click is made. This makes downloading much easier because contents that should be re-downloaded need not be downloaded because they are contained in a different frame.

These are just some of the features and perceived disadvantages of the use of frames. They can be used as long as the developer knows how to fully maximize the potential of frames without making them a problem for the surfers.

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Websites Design for International Users

More and more people around the world are using the Internet, and the numbers are increasing everyday. The Internet has become the primary source of information for many, and because of that, web sites have to constantly improve the content and image of their web pages in order to keep users interested in accessing their sites.

What are the measures that should be implemented by web designers in order to make their sites more appealing to users around the world? Here is a list of issues that can be encountered in web design and the necessary action to be considered:

1. Availability of basic features
First, the design of a web site should be compatible to any browser. It should be able to pass HTML and CSS validation tests. Second, web sites should be able to cater to disabled users. This won't be a problem as long as designers adhere to web standards. Third, the process of navigating a web site should be simple enough for all users. No user likes to encounter a new site, and then he or she has to figure out how to navigate around it. Fourth, status bars should be available. It shows the destination of links as the cursor is being moved. The status of the current page is also displayed as it loads.

2. Appearance of the pages
There are four elements that make up the appearance of a web site. They are the fonts, color, graphics, and writing.

Fonts are not just a matter of personal preference of the user and the designer. The primary importance of font choice is that it affects how fast the users can read the information being presented. Arial fonts are usually recommended over the Times New Roman and the Verdana.

When applying color, it is important that there is enough contrast between background and foreground in order for the content to be readable. To achieve maximum contrast, black text against a white background should be used. Link colors should be established at standard settings.

When it comes to graphics, bear in mind that some pages get too overloaded because of the use of too much images. As much as possible, use graphics only to support the content being presented to users. A lot of people actually have the tendency to shut off the images when browsing for information.

Web designers should remember the distinction between writing for the web and writing for print. Web content should be short and straight to the point.

3. Site performance
There are three factors that determine the overall performance of a web site. These are speed, tables, and connections.

Since everyone is hankering for more bandwidth, the best that designers can do is to avoid the usage of design that will take up too much bandwidth, because not every user has access to fast Internet connections.

To avoid making the site appear like it takes forever to download, avoid loading putting a whole page inside a table. Instead, divide the page into several tables.

Web designers should not cloud a page with too much items for the simple reason that each item requires a separate browser for the whole page to be downloaded.

4. The occurrence of bugs
Of course, no one wants to have bugs in his system. To avoid this, body text should be set up with relative font sizes. One has to consider that there are users out there who have poor eyesight, and they would like to adjust the font sizes through their individual settings in order to read the text more clearly. The relative value recommended for this would be:

font-size: -1

or

font-size: 100%

In case of URLs, it should be simple and short, containing no punctuation or spaces. Users should be able to copy a URL and paste it into an email message without it being wrapped in multiple lines. To avoid dead links, redirects should be established, in order to avoid the breaking of bookmarks and links.

Web designers should make sure that navigation features will be present at all times, whatever the size of the window the user is using. Browser windows should be maximized when applying design, because not every user will be surfing the Internet in a maximized window.

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Website Menu & Usability

The issue of website usability is one of the main topics today in web development. There are many moves regarding the push of web development to accommodate a wider range of visitors.

Different sectors of society have taken their initiative in terms of improving their websites to be able to make them more user-friendly. The government has taken legal steps to be able to realize laws which intend to make websites more usable. The different institutions which are involved in education, information awareness and public services are also moving towards usability. The business sector is also moving towards the same goal because they rely on generating and maintaining traffic. Studies have found out that usability is directly correlated with the desire of people to come back to a certain website. 74% of people consider usability as one of their main considerations for coming back to a website. Making a business website more usable will also give a company a good image.

Context

The main reason why there are moves towards improving the usability of websites is that a big chunk of Internet users are impaired with some kind of disability. In fact, around 20% of the whole American population has some kind of disability. With this situation in mind, the Internet is deemed as an important tool in providing services and opportunities to these people. The Internet has become an avenue for communication, information dissemination and gathering for these people.

Usability Factors

There are a lot of factors to consider when developing a user-centered website. These factors can be grouped in different ways and can be tested by different means. Listed below are some of these factors:

1) Accessibility

The usability of a website is dependent and intertwined with its accessibility. Accessibility refers to the quickness and easiness of gathering information from the website.

2) Download time

Nobody likes a website which takes too long to load. Many people would actually prefer a basic-looking website which loads quickly than a beautiful website which takes minutes to load.

3) Feedback Mechanisms

Websites should be able to provide avenues which can be used by its users to give feedback. Feedback gathering is very important in assessing and improving a website.

4) Navigation

Navigational links should be provided and placed properly all through out the website to guide the users on how to effectively gather the information that they need from the website.

There are other details that need attention when it comes to optimizing the usability of a website. This article tries to tackle one of them which are- menu arrangement. The menu is a basic tool which surfers use to be able to get from one web page to another and to track their navigation.

Here are some useful tips in arranging the menu of a website.

1) Go back to the goals

One should ask what the main goals of the website are to be able to determine the right links to put in the menu bar. The menu’s basic function should be connected with the main goal of the website. A website which is offering an array of products might want to put the different categories of the products in the menu bar.

2) Important pages

The menu bar should highlight all the pages which contain pertinent information regarding the purpose of the website. The contents of the menu bar should be carefully chosen so as to maximize its limited space.

3) Cohesion

Items should be placed in the menu in a cohesive manner. It’s basically a choice which involves the right placement of items so as to give proper guidance to the users.

4) Fonts

The users should be able to customize the size of the fonts of the entire website. The fonts that are places in the menu should not be too small or too big. Using a different font for the menu can be done under the premise that they do not deviate too much from the other fonts.

Menu arrangement is just a speck in the whole idea of website usability. The tips above are just basic ways of modifying the menu so as to provide maximum guidance to the users and must be seen in the context of the whole picture. The other aspects of usability should be given attention to be able to develop a user-centered website.

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Website Navigation Design & Website Usability

Navigating through a website should be simple and efficient. Navigation is one of the key determinants of a website’s usability.

Usability refers to the ease of use and learning with regards to websites. It can refer to the effectiveness and quickness of the navigation structure of the website to be able to present pertinent information to the surfers.

The Issue of Usability

Usability is deemed to be very important in terms of web development today. Websites are made with the intention of making them tools for people in doing their daily tasks. Developing complex websites which don’t assist people in effectively doing their tasks would make little sense.

People with disabilities are continuing to grow in number. In the United States alone, one-fifth of the population is pestered by some kind of disability. This is the main reason why many people are gearing towards making websites more usable. The Internet has become a main instrument for these people to be able to live their lives.

Navigation

The usability of a website is dependent on several different factors such as accessibility, content quality and readability and over-all presentation, however, many web developers would say that the usability of a website is all about navigation.

This article tries to lay down some basic tips which should guide a developer on how to make a website more usable through the improvement of its navigational structure.

Here are some tips on how to make a website’s navigation more user-friendly:

-Avoidance of irrelevant links

One of the main mistakes of web developers in building websites is that they add more confusion to the visitor rather than eliminate it. This is the result of putting too much links that are not really needed by the visitors.

Having too many links to the other parts of the website is clearly an indication that the navigational structure of the website is not at its best. Let’s examine a hypothetical website so as to give us a way to discuss the different things to avoid and do in designing a website’s navigation structure. Let’s say that we are building a public auction site (one similar to E-bay).

If a surfer would want to buy computer accessories, the website should not contain irrelevant links to other parts of the website such as putting a direct link towards the section on buying clothes. If the said person is interested in buying clothes after he has shopped for the computer accessories that he needs, he will definitely find his way to the clothes section. Putting these kinds of links will irritate more people than satisfy more people. It’s like putting a section of computer accessories and a section of clothing right beside each other in a department store-it makes no sense.

-Standardize icons

A study has revealed that 39% of shoppers didn’t pursue in buying certain items from the Internet because they found the sites to be too hard to navigate. This meant a lot of loss for the businesses, but this can be avoided.

One of the ways to improve navigation is to use standardized icons for linking pages. Icons were made to be able to represent something that is related to it. The use of random icons will definitely add up to the confusion regarding navigation. Also, developers shouldn’t over-explain the icon because icons are there to be able to provide non-text information about the link. A brief explanation should be provided, but it should be kept brief and concise.

-Sitemap

The provision of a sitemap will definitely help people to effectively navigate through the website. A sitemap provides a skeleton structure of the website in a single page. All the links and contents are indicated in a sitemap therefore making navigation a much easier process.

-Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumb links provide linkage to the major pages of a website. These are particularly useful for people because they give easy access to the major pages.

-Avoid burying information

Navigating through a website need not be a journey through an ocean. A simple rule of thumb is that all the web pages in the website should be accessible from each other not more than 3 clicks away.

These are just some of the ways on how to improve the usability of a website through the improvement of navigation. These steps should be done hand-in-hand with the other ways of improving a website’s usability.

Additional Reading
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Website Page Length and Usability

The Internet has provided us with new ways of doing things such as communicating, gathering information and making business transactions. Websites form the backbone of the Internet. They are primarily created to be able to serve as a tool for people to live their lives in this modern world.

The use of Internet application is very important especially to the people who have impairments. 20% of the American population is affected by some kind of disability. The Internet has been able to give the disabled avenues through which they can perform functions that they have not been able to do before.

Usability

The usability of websites is one of the pressing concerns of web developers today. Usability refers to the easiness of navigation and overall access of information through a website. Websites are now being developed to be able to provide maximum usability to the widest range of surfers. A website’s features must be able to assist the surfers rather than be hindrances.

There are many perceived benefits from improving the usability of a website. Not only will the surfers, particularly those who have some kind of impairment but also the web developers, the businessmen and the whole Internet community as well.
Improved website usability will result in end-user satisfaction. A survey which involved people who were trying to avail certain services and products from the Internet revealed that 39% of all availing attempts are spoiled because the buyers are discouraged by the poor usability of the website. Improving the website will definitely end in user satisfaction.

Usability will also result in the competitiveness of the website. There are millions of websites that are out there today, and the number is growing faster than ever before. What separates the popular ones from the not-so-popular ones is website usability. People want to access information through websites and they are particularly looking for two basic features: quality of content and access. There’s no sense in designing a website with poor information. Poor access tools will also make a website not likable even though it contains well written contents.

Page Length

There are many factors in determining the usability of a website. A website with good usability will have quality contents, good accessibility, navigation and readability. The length of the pages might seem like an impertinent thing when it comes to usability, but it is actually a factor to consider in website development.

The Internet browser is like a portal which takes people to wherever they may want to go in the virtual world of the Internet. This is why the length of the web page is important. The pages must be designed in a way that they accommodate and present the information to the visitors in a comprehensive way which is easy on the eyes.

Short versus Long

When it comes to determining the length of the page, it all boils down to a simple yet important decision- whether to use short or long pages. In determining this, one should always remember that the length of the web pages may not be uniform. The length of each page must correspond to its contents and its purpose.

In determining the length of the page, one must consider the following:

1) Contents

Again, the length of the page is dependent on its contents. The homepage which contains the overview of the webpage utilize short pages most of the time. Pages which contain information which can be easily be browsed should also utilize short pages. Pages containing long graphics should be put in short pages as well.

If the page contains information that need to match the size of its paper counterparts, the said web page must be long enough to do so. Sitemaps and other such pages must be long enough to accommodate all the information needed.

2) Go back to the goals

The overall determination of the length of the web pages must be structured within the whole planning process for the development of the website.

3) Scrolling

A developer can choose between providing a scroll bar or a page link in developing pages which contain reading materials. If speed is deemed as a key factor in the reading process, the developer might want to use a link instead of a scroll bar.

These are just some basic ways on how to improve a website’s usability with the proper determination of the web pages. These should be integrated with the other ways of improving website usability.

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Web Traffic Tips & Techniques

The Web traffic is a major part of a website. Websites are not able to function without it, as it is the amount of data and information received and sent by a website visitor. A website should have increased web traffic in order to survive. To increase the web traffic, a website should have many visitors.

How are you going to increase the web traffic of your web site? If you are a web developer or ecommerce owner, increasing the amount of visitors in your website is of extreme importance. For you to gain many visitors, you need to use the following methods to learn more about increasing the traffic of your website.

• You only need to maintain a particular content of your website. Your website should contain all the information your visitors need. The information you should feed your reader must contain many links to your website. You also have to put quality content to give your visitors reason to come back.

• Have a regular distribution of newsletters. Newsletter serves as a reminder to your visitors that your website still exists. You should send newsletters especially to those who have subscribed but has failed to visit your site for a long time. Write and send newsletters on a regular basis. It can be monthly or weekly as long as the newsletter you will be sending to your subscribers is of quality and has convincing content.

• Make a forum or community posts. This will give you information to all the asked questions of your visitors. Not only that, it also answers all the questions of your visitors including yours. It also gives you information that you can add to your website. Get your self involved in the forum, and add your advertisements as well as your URL.

• You can run contests or promos that will encourage your visitors to log on to your website repeatedly. Promos and contests will catch the interest of your visitors. Make them go after your good prize; it will make them excited to win. You should make your visitors aware of your rules, like the most times that a visitor uses your website, the more chances of winning. This catchy promotion will absolutely increase the web traffic of your website.

• Invite good writers to your website. From writing your own web contents, you are sure to save money from it. However, there are things you need to master before you can write a quality article. By inviting writers with good reputation, your site will be a good hit to the visitors especially to the ones who appreciate good insightful literature. They are going to write quality articles that will make your visitors comeback to your website.

• You can also invite special personalities in your website. They can join the forum together with all your visitors. You can hold a special event where your visitors will be given a chance to chat with a prestigious personality. They are given special privilege to ask questions and chat with the special personality invited.

• Advertise your website through banners, text links, magazines, newspapers, media and offline advertisements. This is an invitation that should catch the attention. Make sure to make convincing advertisements. Aside from the mentioned above you can also try giving away free e-books or articles as well as classified ads.

• You can also give the top visitors free items or freebies. These items are given to the frequent visitors of your website. Pens, shirts, stress balls and many others that can be given with your website’s name and URL. This will be a good advertisement.

To build a good website, you must build a good reputation. It is the most effective way to make your website famous. This is attained through writing emails and making good contents of your website. You can also write articles on other websites as long as you put a small resource box after your article. This will serve as the link to your website. With more articles you made, the more chance of getting more traffic in your website.

You are able to get the major numbers of traffic in your website by using the following methods. If you want to earn money, you have to work for it, and you need to do lots of effort to attain effective and positive popularity of your website.

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Website Design and Building Customer Relationships

E-commerce, or doing business through the Internet is certainly picking up. This may primarily be because of the ease and convenience of shopping online, not to mention the savings from a significantly lower overhead compared to brick-and-mortar stores.

However, regardless of the benefits of e-commerce, why is it that traditional brick-and-mortar stores are still around and seem to grow instead of decline?

One major reason could be because these kinds of stores still represent and hold a significantly higher degree of security to the consumer as compared to a website. The sense of permanence, familiarity and reliability that a physical location holds is what brings customers back to the store.

While online businesses cannot compete with the physical assurance brick-and-mortars have, web-based enterprises can still develop a degree of familiarity with their customers that fosters a relationship of trust and reliability. And majority of this is built around the design of a website.

The One Unchanging Principle: Think like Your Customer
Whether your business has a physical or virtual location, one principle in building relationships with your customers remains – and this is to think like them.

The more successful businesses have prospered because they have made their customers’ mindset their own. For traditional businesses, it meant everything from conveniently locating goods to offering ready and credible assistance.

Successful websites should follow suit. With the lack of tangible contact, a potential customer could have little basis for forming a relationship with an online store. And if building customer loyalty is your goal, then suitable substitutes must be found.

Looks and feels familiar
First impressions last. As soon as a visitor clicks on a link to your site, he expects to see something that he will like, and therefore trust.

Take an online garden supply store for an example. A cut and dry layout of columns and rows, with little to no pictures won’t give the visitor the impression he has accessed a gardening store. Not a lot of hits would result, much less in sales.

However, if that same site was built to look like a garden shed, for example, the customer might feel more at home with shopping there because the look of the site used a familiar concept with the customer and incorporated it into the over-all look and feel of the website.

Being able to capture and retain your visitor’s attention is the first step in converting a visit into a sale and eventually working towards a strong business relationship.

Ready Assistance and Assurance
A customer appreciates a ready source of help and information when he or she is shopping. So again, thinking like a customer, find ways where a visitor can access answers to common questions about your products. This could be in the form of a prominent FAQ page or a concise product description alongside a picture.

It helps to strategically locate short but strong testimonials from satisfied customers among your products so visitors can see right away the reliability of the service and goods you provide.

Safe and Secure
While familiarity and assurances of reliable service is great in building customer relationship and loyalty, the bedrock of any relationship is trust. So place a good deal of emphasis on this.

Almost all business and financial transactions over the Internet are now performed over a 128-bit encryption system. So settle for nothing less than this. It will also help to prominently display this information on your payment and sales confirmation page to assure your customers this measure of security.

Build on the Relationship
The beginnings of a lasting relationship start from a good first impression. Hopefully, the look of the website has drawn your visitor in comfortably enough to make them want to purchase something from you for the first time. Once they have done so, it is still well within your control to assure that that first transaction will lead to many more.

You can do this through a number of ways, the most common of which is to thank the customer for purchasing from you and to assure them of your products’ warranties (if any apply).

Offer your customers useful tips and information on a resource page so they can visit you again, even if to purchase is not the primary intention. Most online transactions require an email address to be submitted so invite the customer to subscribe to your e-newsletter (if you have one). You may offer perks and / or discounts if they do subscribe. However, to avoid being labeled as spam, make sure the material is clearly solicited for and is sent in timely manner.

About the best indicator of loyalty is when your customer sees you as an expert in your line of business. Aim to be this through your website and your customers will begin to see you as more than just a supplier, but a trusted consultant.

By taking the necessary steps with your website in cultivating familiarity and trust with your customers, results will be reflected not only in your sales but with your customer relationships as well.

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Conversion-Placement of Information on your Site

Arranging information in a website is hardly different from laying out furniture in a house. As much as you would group different kinds of furniture together in certain rooms, so would you group different kinds of information in certain pages?

If you’re just starting out in building your own website, then this is a useful metaphor for you when it comes to positioning information effectively in your website and avoiding a confusing, unorganized mess.

Grouping information together
Beds, dressers and closets belong in a bedroom; kitchen appliances, cupboards and pantry shelves belong in the kitchen – you get the idea, right?

The idea is to categorize information. You don’t want to be hopping from one page to another and back again to get a coherent set of information. You’d want them all conveniently contained in one page.

So for example, if you sell items on your website, group these into one page. (Of course if you have a lot of items to sell, categorize them into the different kinds of products as well).

If you maintain a website about your family or an association you’re part of, group pertinent information together. It probably won’t be helpful if you lump the family tree with the photo albums and the contact information all in one single page. That’d make for one very cluttered site.

Typical websites have major headings or categories, which are:
- Home (also called index) page
- About Me / Us page
- Resources page
- Contact page

A Home page should contain information that answers the question “What is this website about?” It should also display the other categories so a visitor can easily access them.

The About Me / U page holds information about the person or organization who owns the website. Some websites don’t have these, but it adds to reliability and attachment to the site when visitors are allowed information that lets them know more about the site’s owner.

The Resources page holds useful and practical information for the visitor. Some resource pages also contain trivia and games, which many visitors enjoy. The resources page is usually the page that gets updated the most as resources are added or renewed. Updates on this page is usually the main reason a visitor comes back to surf the site again.

A contact page is usually the last page to be viewed by visitor when accessing a site. It is usually done only when the visitor wishes to directly communicate with the website’s administrator and / or owner. While the information for this could have been included in the About Us page, a Contact page makes this getting information easier for the visitor. And ease in accessing information is an important factor in good website design.

Laying Them All Out
Now that you’ve got your categories and the information ready, now is the time to lay the information out on each page.

First of all, it is highly recommended that you maintain a uniform layout for all your website’s major pages. This is to help the visitor orient himself quickly to your site navigate easily.

For example, if you locate the major headings of your website at the top area of your Home page, it is best that you do the same for all the rest of the pages. Getting a different layout for each page tends to confuse the visitor.

Hot Spots, Weak Spots
With a uniform layout, now it’s time to begin prioritizing information. As it is with a room, a web page has choice focal points and weak spots. You should identify these areas on your web pages and lay out the information accordingly in degrees of priority.

Even with animation and graphics, the main medium of the Internet is still text. Since this is so, applying the principles of reading when laying out information on your website will make it so that viewing each page is easy and effective.

The English language is written (and therefore, also read) from left to right, top to bottom. The website visitor will skim the pages in this general pattern. So the information you consider the most important should ideally be located at the top left area of your web page.

Of course, the information may not necessarily be text as it could very well be a picture. But rest assured, what will be located in the top left will get the first and therefore, freshest attention from the visitor. It would do well to present your core message in this area.

Other information follows as the progression from left to right, top to bottom continues. However, despite this pattern, a visitor is capable to digressing from such a pattern. In fact, next to the top left area, a visitor tends to notice the left and right margins of a page. Usually, links to other pages are located in the left side of the page, while pictures or advertisements are located at the right.

The center can either become the weakest or strongest area of a page, depending on how the other elements are laid out.

It becomes weak when the body is uniform all throughout (as one continuous block of text or pictures). However, if the body is strategically broken up, the center of the page becomes a prime focal point and therefore may rank as the most important area next to, if not higher than, the top left area of a web page.

While it is possible to have an endless length for a web page, it is highly discouraged. It is much preferred to have several short pages that are concise with easily seen information, rather than to have a few long ones that are crammed with text and pictures.

As you layout the information you wish to share on your website, keep in mind convenience and practicality as would in laying out tables and chairs in a room. You will soon find that you have come up with a website that is not only informative, but memorable as well, because of how well you laid it out.
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Web Traffic & Website Profit

Many of you may have had trouble in owning a website, if you will look for more information in handling a website, you will know that it is not just the design that makes all the visitors interested in a website. There are things you need to consider in order for you to profit from owning a website.

You should know the importance of web traffic. What is web traffic?

It is important to have it in a website, as it makes your website exist and survive. It has big contribution to internet traffic. It is the sent and received data of a visitor. With web traffic on your website, you are sure to profit more money and extend the length of your website existence.

You are sure to gain more profit if you attract more traffic, as it determines the amount of visitors that uses your website. Visitors are like costumers in the department store, the more visitors you attract the more money you are going to get. So earning web traffic is really of great importance. Many web browsers are incidental shoppers, they see a thing they like and they buy it. But how could they buy from you if they don’t even know you exist?

To get more traffic, there are things you need to know. In order to gain what you need to receive, it is essential to increase the amount of visitors of your website. What are the things you need to know to attract more visitors?

The first thing you need to learn is how to convert your website visitors to paying users. People that logs in and out of your website are called visitors. You need to persuade your visitors to use your site repeatedly. If you have many visitors in your website, you will sure to earn more money.

You need to make a fine advertisement, which is one way to attract more visitors. Persuade the visitors of your website by the use of highly convincing advertisements. Advertisements can be placed over internet, newspapers, daily journal, magazines and media. Remember that the purpose of the advertisement is to attract visitors; therefore, it should be attractive and persuasive.

Other visitors love to read articles. Make sure that the articles and other contents of your websites are worth reading. To make this, you need to find a good writer with good reputation, as they can produce articles of good quality. By this, your visitors are given reasons to visit your site.

Your website should only contain a particular subject. If your website is for buy and sell, it should only contain descriptions and specifications of the product you are going to sell. Never put other contents as it can ruin the subject of your website.

You can also make a community forum where your visitors are free to exchange ideas and messages. With this, you are able to know the matters that concern your visitors. Know all their concerns and make topics out of it. Interesting topics are usually derived from forum itself. Your visitors are given reasons to visit your website.

You should give your visitors a special day to chat with some famous personalities. You can invite a personality to join the forum so your visitors will have the chance to chat with him/her. This should be people which has made a name for themselves in internet marketing and online business. They can share their expertise and knowledge.

You can also make contest, promotions and give away freebies, as it can attract more visitors. Make your special price interesting, it will catch the attention of the visitors and make them use your websites frequently. You can also make attention grabber ads about your promotions so more people will be aware that your website exists.

You can also write for other websites that accepts freelance writers. Writing some articles for them, can give you a chance to place your name and URL at the end of your article or small resource box. This can link the readers to your website.

Some visitors are very particular on the reputation of a website. Make sure that your website is of good reputation by placing quality articles and contents of your website. Avoid making comments about other websites, as this will bring a negative image to your website.

These are effective ways to attract more visitors to your website. With more visitors, you will gain much web traffic as well. Moreover, with more traffic the more profit you are going to earn. Earn more web traffic by doing all the methods mentioned in this article, you are sure to earn as much as what you expect.

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