Are You Looking For the Perfect Web Design?

By Helen Cox

Every day worldwide millions of people log onto the Internet for business, entertainment and information. Anyone who has a website will cover one of these three aspects, which brings me to the point of web design. If you want your website to be found and used by the general public then you will have to have a site that is designed to appeal to your users.

There are many ways that you can entice someone to do business with you such as offering them a cheaper service than your competitors but on the Internet if you want someone to do business with you then your website needs to be user friendly and designed in a way that will make people stay on your site long enough to buy the products or services that are on offer to them.

The design of your website is more important than many people realise and often people design their sites with the wrong people in mind. A lot of people when they are first setting up their website will design their site in a way that appeals to them and in a way that they feel best reflects the business; this is the first mistake to make. When you are designing your website you need to do so with your target market in mind. You need to identify who you are aiming your website at, for example if you are aiming your site at a younger audience then your website should be quite funky and can include more flash as this will draw your audience in. If however the products or services that your business offers can apply to anyone of any age, such as mobile phones, you have to be careful when it comes to the design of your site as you need to design it in a way that will apply to all members of the public. The best way to go about doing this is by keeping your site simple and using neutral colours.

Your website needs to promote your business, you need to make people get involved in your business merely by the design that you have used. This may sound like a difficult thing to do but when you know how you can go about this with no problem at all.

When you are designing your website you should use limited colour and coordinate your website. As well as this you also need to remember that you need good unique content that is original. Your web content is the backbone of your website and it should be search engine friendly. You need to make sure that your site is easily readable and easily accessible for your visitors.

The design of your website can be the difference between your business being a success online and your business being a failure. You need to make sure that any phone numbers are placed in the top right hand corner under the sites logo and that your contact page should be clearly labelled. All of your pages should navigate to each other and the back to the main home page.

If you are struggling to get your site designed then you should enlist the help of a professional web design company to get the design done for you.

Helen is the web master of Discount Domains, who offer professional Web Design and Web Hosting services as well as all of your Search Engine Optimisation needs.

Please feel free to republish this article provided a working hyperlink remains to our site

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Helen_Cox

Getting Right From the Start - Tags & Design

By Rif Chia
I have met so many business owners whom are concerned over the performance of their website, only after a few years of operation online. It is a must to spread the message and educate the business world on getting right on your website framework. You can never imagine how much potential profits it can bring to the business. Remember what i am going to say will help your business website in search engine ranking which will improve your traffic.

Title Tag

I have said and wrote a number of articles on getting the right title and placing it just after the HEAD tag. The first line a spider read would be the TITLE tag and it carries significant SEO value because it tells the spider roughly what kind of content that webpage carries. Title tag is also displayed in search engine result on top of the description and it tells a searcher what he/she will be expecting from the website. Put your important keyword in your title, a good example would be Confectionery Packaging | Global Distributor for a packaging company.

Meta Description Tag

This is the description of your website shown in the search engine result. Write this description carefully with relevant keywords. Spiders see this as a reference to the content that webpage contains.

Keywords Density

Getting the correct keywords density ( around 3% - 3.25% ) is common. Keywords are important words that you believed a searcher may type and find you via the search engine. Identify the correct ones and you are on your way to the top of the SEPRS.

Nested Tables

I am not saying having nested tables are not good. Spiders simply do not like nested tables and to prevent them from further indexing a webpage, we try to reduce the use of nested tables. Replacing them with CSS would be good. Even my website is currently using a bit of nested tables and i am in the process of changing them with CSS scripting.

TITLE tag in a href

Many do not make use of this tag in their links. Having them is good and it tells the spiders what kind of link they might expect. It carries SEO value by further securing the correct keyword.

a href=http://www.ezbusinessneeds.com title=Search Marketing and SEO Web Design

ALT tag in img

Alt tag is commonly used to show text in case the image is unable to load in browsers. Spiders do not view image, they aren't human. So by providing spiders with ALTERNATIVE text will increase your target keyword density. This tag is normally used for blind personnel.

Well this shall end the TAGS for SEO Web Design. The next thing you need to know would be the scripting method that affects search engine indexing. I will write the article another day, see you around.

Rif Chia is the Founder & Private SEO Consultant of EzBusinessNeeds.com with more than 5 years experiences
SEO Web Design
http://www.ezbusinessneeds.com - Singapore SEO

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rif_Chia

Ten Top Tips For a Visitor-Friendly Web Site

By Rif Chia

Make it clear what you do

It may be obvious to you, but your site needs to spell out to visitors what it's about. You'd be surprised how many sites seem to make the assumption that visitors will know the company, understand their products or services and are familiar with all the latest jargon. Make sure your home page states clearly, in a paragraph or less of readable copy, who you are, what you do and what you've got to offer.

Fulfill your visitors' expectations

Another simple way to make your site more visitor friendly is to make sure it reflects what people are expecting to find when they reach the site, whether through a search engine, a banner or pop-up ad or a link from another site. You can do this by first looking at the search engines' search logs to find out what people want and how they ask for it (try Overture's Keyword Suggestion Tool), and then ensuring that your navigation and site messaging and content use those same keywords.

Put things where people expect to find them

Familiarity is a big part of usability. Research has shown that people expect site features to be in a certain place on the page. They look for the search box in the top right hand corner, the products or services down the left hand column, the check out in the bottom right hand corner, the main navigation along the top and the small print (i.e. terms of use, privacy) along the bottom.

Minimize the clickstream

More than 83% of Internet users are likely to leave a website if they feel they have too many clicks to find what they're looking for. So, for example, instead of splitting copy across several pages, with a click to move forward to each page, put it on long, scrollable pages with quick navigation links so that people can jump to the content they want, while staying on the same page.

Have an About Us and Contact Us page

Credibility is fast becoming a key usability issue. If people are going to entrust you with their credit card details or consider you a serious contender for their business, they want to be sure you really exist. We've all come across web sites that don't even have an address, never mind a telephone. That's why it's essential to have an About Us and a Contact Us page - to not only reassure people you're a proper business, but to give them a choice of contact options, including phone, email, directions and a map.

Increase your download speeds

Studies have shown that the average web site visitor will wait less than 9 seconds for a page to download - and the days of universal broadband are still a long way off. So instead of tedious Flash intros or bandwidth-hungry graphics, make your site as lean and nimble as possible. By stripping out the superfluous code, which is often created by web design software such as Dreamweaver, your site can be faster to load, even during peak traffic times, such as immediately after an advertising campaign. What's more, there are estimated to be 743 million people worldwide accessing the net by phone and PDA, so anything you can do to make your site faster and more accessible, will help ensure your availability to this huge new market.

Be search engine friendly

Search engine optimisation, because it focuses on making sites more appropriate to visitors' search queries, more content-rich and better-connected to other relevant sites can make a site more visitor friendly, as a natural by product of the process. In addition, a site map, breadcrumbs and descriptive text links (rather than just 'click here') are search engine friendly features which also enhance the visitor experience.

Know your weaknesses

As well as knowing where your visitors are coming from (ie. which search engine or link from another site), it's also worth knowing where your visitors are leaving from - the quit spots, in other words. If you check your server log files, and see that people are regularly quitting the site at a point where you don't expect, such as between two related pages, you can identify and fix errors in your navigation, download or transaction systems.

Create escape hatches

Conversely, you need to give visitors the opportunity to make a quick getaway. For example, every page should have a clearly marked link back to the home page. Likewise, your transaction process should offer people the chance to empty, as well as fill, their shopping baskets or opt-out from on-site processes, such as downloads, registrations or subscriptions.

Give a warm welcome to disabled visitors

According to the Disability Discrimination Act, web sites must be accessible to all members of the online community - including disabled visitors. Using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) separates presentation from content, which not only makes the site accessible to people using assistive technologies such as voice browsers, but also enables visually impaired visitors, including the elderly (a growing online population) to resize formatting effects, such as colour and font size, to be easier to read. Other easy ways to improve your site's accessibility include ensuring links indicate content (i.e. not just 'click here') and giving informational images ALT descriptions and decorative images null ALT descriptions or alt="".

Fortunately, if your site is search engine friendly, you're already part of the way there. Assistive technologies work in a very similar way to search engine spiders, as they 'spider' the site, read the content and links and present it back to the user in a visitor-friendly format. Therefore, a site that's search engine friendly is already a good way towards being accessible to disabled visitors, as well as people using their phones or PDAs to access the net.

Rif Chia is the Founder & Private SEO Consultant of EzBusinessNeeds.com with more than 5 years experiences
SEO Web Design
Singapore SEO

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rif_Chia

Creating a Distinguished Web Site For Affiliate Marketing

By Terez Dunn

There are ways to impress your visitors and there are also ways to drive them off. And in the affiliate marketing industry, you are in dire need to attract more customers rather than driving them away and swearing never to return to that site again. That is why, before anything else and before knowing how to create a distinguished web site, you have to know that there are three things internet users hate while surfing the net.

First, they despise long hours of downloading a file. Second, they ignore web sites that are so out-of-this world. Alien-like terms and confusing methods are not really understandable by all means possible. Last, internet users hate it when the conditions and promises written in the site are not real. Web sites like these don't get any second chance for visitors to browse again. There is a wide selection so why settle for one right?

You, as an entrepreneur in the affiliate marketing world who is involved in this kind of program, must avoid this at all cost. You have to maintain an integrity that will make your customers to keep coming back for more. Below are 5 very good and effective tips on creating a site that will be distinguished by many.

Tip 1 - Make your site clear and understandable.

Your site must have a specific idea at hand. You have to establish an aim that will give the traffic a clear view of what you're aiming at. Design your site as something that even kids will understand. Either to inform, sell or entertain, it doesn't matter for as long as the people know what your site is all about. It should have consistency in every purpose.

Tip 2 - Design a site for the customers.

If you make a site because you wanted your prospects and existing customers to use it on their advantage, that would be the most perfect plan. Don't just put anything because you wanted it but because your customers would want it to be like so. Always consider the customer's need to revisit and reorder according to their needs. Remember what someone needs will always be what they want.

Tip 3 - Complexity is never an ideal choice.

Always choose something that is simple in the eyes of your customers. Showcasing different kinds of skills is not really what a visitor wants to see. They may not be impressed of something as complicated as a labyrinth. Point is, the content is what matters most. If the customers get the idea of your content and appreciate its existence, then you have made a good job on keeping it simple.

Tip 4 - Navigation made easier and more intuitive.

Probably, this is one of the most important aspects of web design. Easy navigation of a web page that has an intuitive appeal on your audience always works magically. When navigating a site, it has to be clear and logical. Important information must always be accessible and is easy to find. Don't design a web page that will frustrate your customers. Names of links must be self-explanatory and concise. One more thing, keep your data up-to-date.

Tip 5 - Make your site appealing.

Appealing to the masses through visual effects is rather subjective but will make a certain amount of influence to the perception of your customers. Be sure that your layout is uncluttered and the choice of color and font is appropriate. Images should not contain any obscene thoughts and remarks and ensure the good impression of what your affiliate website marketing business is about.

Would you like to have a real web site business? Terez Dunn invites you to visit his profitable online business website for everything you need to start and run your own online business. His services include advertising, mentoring, and a full service training and support package to help guarantee your success. Learn more here: http://www.tdunnsdreamjob.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Terez_Dunn

How to Start With Your First Business Website?

By Krunal Jariwala

With continuously increased penetration of internet, a website is a must tool in the hand of marketer. Any business, however small can not avoid the potential of having a good business website. A small business website, not more than few pages could actually help you to create a positive brand image of your business in the minds of your site's visitors, who could eventually turn into your customer. And all this could actually happen without meeting them.

Many of small businesses ask me how they should start with their first website and more importantly whether the website will pay back them? Developing a small website doesn't cost one more than few bucks. I ask them to compare the cost of developing a site with the other form of advertising or promotion. And again, a website is more interactive then any other form. More importantly one can easily track the performance of website using a free tool like Google Analytics.

Then what actually takes to start with first small business website?

Before you start, think about your goals behind developing a website
Define who will visit your website? Decide your target market or potential visitors
Find out what they look for when they visit websites like yours
Decide what information is more important for your potential visitors and how it will convert them into your customers
Define your products / services you want to offer to them
Doing this will actually define your Internet Marketing Strategy which will guide you through the rest of process.

Then what you need is a good Website design company, contact one you know, and ask them to help you in these. Provide them with the information you've prepared. Remember that having a more informative site will automatically produce good results, but that information should be related to your company, your services, and your products and must interest to your visitors.

You'll require deciding a good domain name for your business website, finding the good web hosting company to host your site. We'll look into what is domain name, and what is hosting in our next article.

Synergy Informatics provides affordable web hosting, web design and web application development services to local as well as overseas clients. We're a team of professionals, and we believe in achieving complete customer satisfaction by providing best quality services.

Synergy Informatics
A web hosting, design & development solutions company.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Krunal_Jariwala

When Web Development Starts to Take Into Account the User

By Al Keser

Up until a few years ago, web development was gone about in a utilitarian kind of way. Something needed to get done, and a quick and logical solution was found for it. Technologies such as cgi, asp, ajax all came about to give answers to difficult questions such as how to create dynamic pages. Php eventually won out by being the most efficient and easy-to-learn language along with MySql databases. With great support and free software, these were the best web development solutions out there for the common user.

It is that common user that made this evolution happen. When people who were not trained in web design started making their own websites, then finally the most accessible web development technologies became commonplace. But still, web development was not being done in a way that was turned toward the user. It was done in a functional way that solved any issues that arose, but did not ultimately help the user get around a site or ever find the website. That is when the push for css-based design and url re-write mods came to be.

One of the heroes of this movement in my mind is Dave Shea. He pushed for standards in web development and for the use of CSS-based designs that minimized the amount of html and improved the versatility of websites and made universal access and compatibility a must. By keeping the user in mind, designs became more artistic and creative. Javascript and Flash often get in the way of a good web experience for many users and CSS takes care of that partially by creating desired effects without having to use these two programs. Of course, there are always limitless possibilities with Flash design, but in terms of usability, it is inferior to CSS.

The push for Search Engine Optimization has also pushed web developers to make websites with easy to remember url's and well organized content that makes sense to users and search engines. Google's algorithm becomes smarter and requires that page content be readable to humans and not just robots. Good use of headers and semantic page content as opposed to spam-dexing has become more commonplace. Web development has helped with this by generating attractive url's and, through css, has done image replacement for header tags for design purposes.

Al Keser is a journalist, video producer and web designer. He is very up-to-date on New York web development trends and recommends Blue Fountain Media for all New York web design projects.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Al_Keser

How to Create a Website - 4 Killer Tips That Show You How to Create a Website in Just Mere Hours

By Fabian Tan


With a wide variety of resources being available on the internet, it is very comfortable to create a website today. Most of the resource offerings are either in the form of free downloads or tutorials or 'do-it-yourself' kits. But when you are looking to learn how to create a web site that can deliver you results, you can be better off with the following tips.

1. The Main Page

Use descriptive page titles for your main page rather than calling it the 'Home' page. The visitors should know what they should expect to find in the page they are visiting. The same rule will apply to other pages too.

2. Graphics and Media

When you are engaged in the exercise to learn how to create a web site, ensure to keep the graphics and other media to the minimum possible. Excessive graphics and media would delay the loading of the page on the browser which is a big deterrent for the web visitors.

3. XHTML codes

Whatever be the reason for you to acquire knowledge on how to create a web site, ensure to use only XHTML coding that is valid. This is very relevant because more and more people are using mobile devices to access the internet. The better option would be to provide a mirror of your pages designed for mobile devices.

4. Be judicious with text

The text that you provide when you know how to create a website should be more quality oriented than quantity. May be, you have been told that large amounts of keywords in the text can get you better page ranks.

Fabian Tan is a well-known Internet Marketing expert and the author of the popular 45-page Report:

"Murder Your Job: How To Build Cash Sucking Autopilot Businesses In 30 Days Or Less!"

Head over to http://www.MurderYourJob.com to get your FREE copy now before its gone!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Fabian_Tan

Web Based Application - Make Web-Traffic Suitable Website

By Aisha Danna


Websites are solving many purposes. People use them for buying products & services, for reading information, for learning techniques, for downloading songs & pictures and like that for a number of purposes. Now, every websites wants that it get the maximum traffic but it is not an easy task. Internet users switch to those websites which provide good services, which are user friendly and which are secure. If you have a website then make it sure that it is user-friendly and secure and for that you can take the consultancies from companies which are experts in web-based application.
It takes a lot of creativity to develop a website and you might know that a number of software applications are used to develop it. These software applications try to make the online services useful and also easy to use. Now, web based application can develop amazing products to meet client satisfaction and to make users have a never before online experience. You can opt for a company providing such services to know more about these applications. Due to the competition, all small and mid class web applications development companies are offering quality services at very competitive price. These applications attract quality traffic to a website and at the same time they retain them for long hours on a single website.
That is why websites are choosing firms expert in web based application. This is the reason why some websites are more friendly and useful from the user's point of view as compared to others. You can expect lot of facilities in your website if it is developed using the most up-to-date and best software applications. By using these software you can develop a business friendly web application. As a lot of Internet users are doing businesses online apart from online shopping. So it is necessary that business transactions are safe and secure. A website takes care of this issue and it uses such applications which can make it safe and secure to use.
So, whether it is a process of transferring funds from one place to another, or networking on a community portal, or buying a product, adoption of a web based application is essential. These days many Internet marketing companies are offering the services of web based applications for different kinds of websites like online shopping portals, entertainment website, eCommerce websites or community websites. So, call them and make your website suitable for quality traffic.
Author:The author is an expert in online marketing, working with epurplemedia, an online marketing company dedicated to provide service on web based application, e-mail marketing, affiliate marketing.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aisha_Danna

Web Development Company - If Getting Ahead is Your Aim

By Naman Jain


The business of Internet has become vast. Almost everything worth consuming and almost every services worth opting are available. Websites want to make it sure that, the product and services which they are selling, do a good business. But it is not an easy task. As you know that for a single product, there are more than hundreds of websites. So it is necessary that a website is full of appropriate functions and buttons and it is useful and user-friendly for the end user. Many small and big companies are taking the help of a web development company for the same.
These companies are playing a very major role in making the websites useful. A web development company ensures that a website is built with the required specifications. It strives to create a website that looks quite professional and allows you to enter all valid information regarding your products, services or organization. These companies are in fact website builders that give you a complete idea regarding how your website will be designed, what colour or theme should be used and how the pages will be edited to make it up-to-date.
At every step of website building you can take online assistance which would help you to maintain and track visitors. You can also count over the number of pages viewed. A web development company is efficient enough build a top quality website which is user-friendly and highly interactive. This is also true that only making website is not enough. As soon as the website is ready it becomes necessary to bring visitors to the site. You also get assistance regarding helpful information on the website about the search engines. Best search engine position is necessary and for that your website must be search engine optimized.
A web development company also provide tips on how to acquire tags and keywords that could bring the site to the top rankings of search engine result pages. Most of these companies offer a free10 day trail. Therefore, if you are going to launch your website or if you have just started it, do take the consultancy of a web development company. It works in keeping you ahead of competition.
Naman Jain is an Online marketing professional, Presently working with Rupiz Media, one of the leading online marketing company offering expert SEO services, pay per click, affiliate marketing services,UK web development services and website designing solutions over the globe.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Naman_Jain

Do You Make Websites? It's Time to Make Some Easy Money!

By Drew Hammond

PHP is the language of all languages to dominate the internet and the majority of it's websites. It is almost considered expected for a host to support PHP scripts nowadays. You and I both know that so I don't really know why I wasted your time with an introduction.

Lets get to the point. With massive amounts of static, boring websites just catching up with the norm in 2008, it has never been a better time to make some cold hard cash as a PHP programmer!

Examine our potential clients: They are middle-aged small business owners who are still banking on techniques used in the dial-up era! Obviously, this isn't cutting it, and I think we can both assume that our clients aren't very "up-to-date" with technology.

This is great! Nothing is better than a small business owner running a 90's style website in the 21st century.

Why? Well, do you remember when the cost for a one page website exceeded $1,000? This is where our client's time machine is stuck.

They assume that upgrading their website will be a very expensive task, but worth it in the long run. The increase in sales they might get will make up for the initial costs in the next year.

Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! It's time for us to intervene. Let me share my personal favorite sales pitch when discussing a client's primitive website...

"...Alright sir, well I have plenty of great ideas for your website. But as I'm sure you're fully aware, website development isn't cheap."

"Oh yes, I'm fully aware of that. My wife and I have talked it over, and we have decided that it is a necessary improvement in order to increase our sales numbers. So how much are we talkin' here?"

The business owner is expecting a very high amount. For larger websites, he might even be expecting a five-figure total. Instead of taking advantage of his over-estimations, I'll fire back with something like this...

"For the entire site, my quote is for $1,500. How does that offer sound?"

Before he even opens his mouth, I know I have the contract. It never seems to fail. I have yet to have a single person turn down an offer almost 400% less than what was expected. It just doesn't happen.

So how do I make that extra money back? Selling smaller PHP add-ons. Script for $100, installation for $50. Sell a handful of these babies and you're back to where you started!

It truly has never been this easy to make money as a website designer

If you know anything about website design or PHP, I have thousands of small projects that you can knock out in an hour a piece and make hundreds of dollars every day. They're all waiting for you at http://www.squidoo.com/php-programmers-needed-for-cash Enjoy!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Drew_Hammond

Top 5 Must-Have Tips For Managing a Successful Website

By Roxanne Weber

If you have ever been to a "bad" website, you didn't need an expert to tell you it was a bust. Maybe you didn't know exactly why it was bad, but dysfunctional web sites tend to exhibit similarities that make them unlikely success stories.

For instance, have you ever visited a site and wondered "what are they selling anyway?" I know I have. I get frustrated with websites like these and quickly start my search again for a website that focuses on the information I was looking for.

A well designed website can either make or break your website success. The tips below will help you get started and to learn what works for a successful website. These tips are by no means all-inclusive; you will also learn a lot through "trial and error" just as with any brick and mortar business. These tips will however, help you to avoid web blunders that hinder even more seasoned web developers and designers.

Must-Have Tip #1 - Make it clear what you do. Find a niche market and don't try to be a "jack of all trades" selling multiple and unrelated products, services, or information. Instead, figure out who your target market will be, and what products and/or services you provide that will appeal to this market. Then, stay on topic; don't throw in a bunch of irrelevant information just to try and lure visitors. They will resent the deception and you'll lose customers.

Note: It is very important to note that search engine crawlers index and categorize your website based on the text and content you provide on each page. The content on each page is also compared to all other pages on your site, so having a cohesive set of pages that focus on your niche product or service is always better than trying to provide too many products or services.

Must-Have Tip #2 - Do your visitors know how to contact you? You would be surprised how many websites leave no way for a customer to contact them with questions or to order their products and services. Think about it this way: if you stopped into a store that provided widgets, and no one was around to help you or answer questions, how comfortable would you feel spending money with that company? You wouldn't, of course, because if they can't even make themselves available for questions before the sale, they certainly won't take time for you after the sale.

If you worry about getting too much spam, or receiving unwanted phone calls by leaving your contact information on your site, make sure to add your business phone to the federal "Do Not Call" list, and use a contact form instead of just providing your email address. This won't eliminate the problem of spam (what does?) but it will make it more difficult to abuse your contact information.

Note: Always respond to email in a timely manner. Treat them as you would any business phone call. Customers typically expect a higher-than-average response rate when shopping or doing business on the internet; if it takes you longer than 24 hours to respond to an email you will probably lose a customer. Even an "I received your email and will respond to your question shortly" is better than waiting too long to get back to a customer.

Must-Have Tip #3 - Don't use flash introductory pages. Everyone knows they are fun and entertaining, but if your site is designed for sales, a business, or for a professional purpose, what will they add to your site? In fact, for many, these are just another added aggravation they have to wade through to get to the information they really want.

Note: If you must use a flash intro, be sure there is a "Skip" feature clearly marked so visitors can bypass it if they choose.

Must-Have Tip #4 - Focus your web copy on satisfying the needs of your customer. Content can make or break the sale, or determine whether a visitor stays or finds another site to shop. Be sure to provide your costumers with unique and interesting words to help pique their interest and differentiate your products and services from your competitor's.

A well-thought through home page and a few articles that prompt a desired action, while simultaneously provide information to help your visitors quickly (in one or two clicks max) find and pay for products and services will keep them interested, and coming back again and again for future information and purchases.

Note: Consider hiring a contact writer if you're at a loss with web content. This may be a significant investment, but the results, and the success of your site, will definitely be worth it in the long run!

Must-Have Tip #5 - Update, update, update. This cannot be stressed enough; if you provide no reason for visitors to show up on your site again, why would they? If the information is the same week after week, month after month, who would want to? Even your local Wal-Mart will provides weekly sales flyers to entice shoppers back to their store! Keep your site fresh and updated!

In closing, I am sure you are reading this article because you want a professional website. If you have programming skills and can write your own code, great! If not, there are many affordable, quality online website builders available; many hosting packages also provide web software and templates. With a little elbow grease and effort, you can build and maintain a successful website as well!

Roxanne Weber is a professional web business developer and consultant residing in the Midwest. Ms. Weber has over 12 years of business analysis and web development experience, in addition to her years as a professional business consultant.

Ms. Weber's unique experiences include over 8 years of small business web development consulting and a unique combination of formal education, including a master's degree in public administration and an associate degree in computer science. Her educational experiences have laid the foundation for a variety of small business and public organization consulting and development opportunities.

She has had a broad range of professional experiences including as research analyst for a nationally-recognized water resources firm, as a teaching assistant for introductory college-level courses, presenting professional research projects at national and regional conferences, and leading group facilitation efforts, providing support for various statistical analysis and research projects and other business management experiences.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roxanne_Weber

Web Designers Are Not Marketing Experts

By Jon Stringer


Oh no don't put that on your site! That won't work! That's not possible! It can't be done! You just need more traffic. Etc...

Sound familiar?

I hear these excuses all the time. Web designers are not marketing experts and many don't actually give a monkeys whether or not you make any sales.

So many business owners are held back by their web designers and either do not make the required changes to their sites or get put off by down right nonsense that many of these surf boarding junkies talk about.

It's time to set the record straight!

You pay your designer to do a job and if you have even a half decent one they'll do the work you ask, providing you tell them what you want doing instead of asking for their opinion.

If you do struggle it's time to find someone else who's willing to take your strategies and make them happen.

Now before you think I'm slating web designers all together, I'm not, some of them are actually very good, It just pains me to see so many of you with really great ideas fall at the first hurdle due to "poor designers" or the ones that tell you what you can and can't do with YOUR business.

At the end of the day, you should be the one in charge of your marketing efforts. I can help you by giving you great suggestions and strategies to try but what's the point if you don't actually put them into practice?

Now I'm also not going to tell you that everything you try will dramatically increase sales, some may actually reduce sales. HOWEVER, you will never discover the true earning potential of your website unless you are prepared to invest some time and test new tactics to convert more of your existing traffic into actual paying customers.

Every website that we work on, whether this is our own sites or our clients sites, is constantly under going changes, tests and tweaks.

Jon Stringer Is A Writer/Advisor For MarketingTipsUK.Com

Offering Internet Marketing Tips To Large And Small Business For More Information visit http://www.marketingtipsuk.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Stringer

Websites That Sell

By Tracy Needham


Your website should be the hub of your marketing efforts. Everything you put out-from business cards to flyers to the signature line in your email to even your voice mail recording-should be driving people to your website so they can find out more about you.

The good news is you DON'T need an expensive site with a lot of bells and whistles that some designers would try to talk you into. You just need a site that looks professional and has good copy. Here are a few guidelines to consider for creating a website that gets results:

Keep It Simple. Skip the flashy intro pages-take them straight to your website. Use fewer columns, and streamline your navigation tabs. Each page should have one goal-one action or decision you want the reader to make. Too many choices just confuses and distracts the reader, and there are already enough distractions to lure them away.

Layout. Shrink those huge headers-they are taking up valuable retail space. The goal is to get the headline and as many important elements of the copy as possible "above the fold" (i.e. on the page without having to scroll). People tend to scan web pages so bullets are great for organizing key points. In fact, a recent Marketing Sherpa study found that people's eyes tend to go to the bullet points first-even before the headline. Finally, an opt-in box for your email newsletter should go as close to the upper right-hand corner of the page (without scrolling) as possible.

Copy. All web copy though should be chunked into short sections-one-sentence paragraphs may have been a no-no in English class but they're completely acceptable on the web. Use subheadings and highlight key items with a different font colors, bolding, or italics. And if the goal of the page is to sell a product or service, keep in mind that the more expensive something is, the more copy you need to convince people to buy or take the next step.

Fonts. There is a reason why black font on a white background (and blue for web links) is a classic-it's also the most readable. Skip the fancy cursive or otherwise ornate fonts. And don't even think about using reversed text (white font on a black or dark background) for anything important. It's hard to read and consumers also tend to perceive it as less trustworthy than standard text

Graphics. There should definitely be a photo of you somewhere on the site. Marketing Sherpa also found it's better to have no photo than a stock photo, and it's better to have a boring yet relevant photo (like a blah headshot) than a more exciting image that doesn't directly tie into the product or service.

Call-to-Action or Button. Every page should end with something for the reader to do, even if it's just a "Next" to guide them through your site. And make it big and obvious. If you're using a button (e.g. shopping cart or ezine sign up) use one that actually references the action being taken-such as "Sign Me Up" or "Add to Cart." The plain-old "Submit" seems to get fewer takers.

Of course, the work shouldn't end once the website is up. Fresh updates and content give people a reason to go back and also help your search engine rankings. So consider it more as a work that's always in progress.

Tracy Needham, founder of Compelling Communications, LLC, helps small business owners boost their business through compelling copy and marketing strategies that make the most of their time and money. Sign up for her FREE Special Report: The One Press Release You Can Write to Get Thousands of Dollars Worth of Free Publicity at http://www.compellingezine.com

(c) 2008 Tracy Needham

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tracy_Needham

Website Design - Do it in Faultless Way

By Venisa Marcus

Almost everyone these days can do you a website design and better, even claim that they are best at it. To tell you the truth, they could well be good at it but are they keeping key website development and SEO issues at mind while planning for your website. Probably not!


Internet is really huge and to the say least, it is growing at an almost ridiculous and exponential rate. Some of it is plain simple rubbish and some, very good. The good content / websites are really growing at a good number and it is becoming increasingly hard and competitive to market your product over the Internet. You might wonder why? Google on its own has over 2 billion indexed pages, and going through that amount of content can take anyone few light years if not more.


Many people can do web site design, but how many can actually design a website. It's not just about a good flash intro or a nice banner, but the over all look and feel, the navigation, content, images and much more.


Let's start with the over-all look and feel of the website. Do you have a lot of content to publish or few words on small number of pages? This determines if you should have a 100% with website or a fixed length website design. If you have a lot of content for your website, it is usually better to go for 100% width as it helps makes the website looks nice and clean, at least on a high resolution monitor.


Your company logo and website color combination. Try to keep maximum number of colors on your website to be around 4 but feel free use them with variations as that would give a scheme to the website. If you end up using too many colors, you risk making the website look too jazzy and at times hard to read and stay on the website.


Website design structure is the next key point and it is usually helpful if you take some time out to plan this before starting the design process. Put few words on a paper, see what sections you would like to have, including sub-sections if any. If possible, see if you can pen down what kind of content you would want to display in each of these sections and try to come to some sort of uniformity.


Next on, pretty much part of website design structure is website design navigation, which is crucial on two fronts, good user experience and search engine optimization (SEO). If navigation is not easy to an extent of being obvious, don't count on people staying on your website for long and if it is not created properly, search engines will find it harder to index your website, which is probably the worst thing you could be left with.


Finally, never think your website design is finished until you have considered and implemented right strategy for website accessibility. Website accessibility is a very serious issue across the globe at the moment and if you Google it, you will find a lot of companies being fined already. These rulings are few for now but it won't hurt to keep accessibility in mind while creating the website. It involves few simple things like using ALT tags on images (helping to describe your image), and use text links where possible.

Venisa an Internet marketing/SEO expert from Neoteric UK, leading internet marketing and search engine optimization(seo) company serving many clients from London, Preston, Manchester, Liverpool and many more clients across the UK. For more seo tips, seo services visit us at http://www.neotericuk.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Venisa_Marcus

Web Design - Make Your Own Style

By Aisha Danna

Internet has flooded with myriads of websites with various functions. In fact for a single product or service there are hundreds or thousands of websites. Some of these websites are popular and some of these are not. The design of website plays a major role in the popularity of a website. So all websites endeavour to become attractive and for that most of them take the services of a web design company.

If you have an online presence and you want your website to be popular then look at the design of your site. Is it worth attention? Is it stylish and at the same time simple? Is it full of easy navigation tools? Can users use it without any difficulty? All these are vital questions and a good web design is the single answer. Its importance is becoming clear to a number of businesses who are competing for online customers and they are realising that these issues are worth investing in. that is why marketing people are working closely with web designers.

Due to its importance web marketing has become a clearly defined area of specialisation in its own way. In fact web design has a number of aspects to it. A Website's visual look is important. So if you are creating a website for latest gadget's online sale then your site must give a professional look with simple designs and easy navigation buttons. Instructions should be clearly written. Whereas if your website is for fans of a popular rock star then the look must be stylish and full of substance. A good web design requires the designer to be visually literate and capable of creating exact moods and visual environments through their work.

One more important aspect of web design is to consider the behaviour of a website. Do the web pages open with good speed? Online audience expect a web page to open in seconds. If it doesn't, they will go elsewhere. So image handling and sizing for the web is important aspect of an effective web design. If large images are used, the page would load too slowly. A web design company consider these issues also and provide consultation regarding them. Therefore, web design companies are worth choosing for generating revenue out of a website.

Author:
The author is an expert in online marketing, working with epurplemedia, an online marketing company dedicated to provide service on web design, web development, flash web design.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aisha_Danna

Web Design Tips - Web 2.0 Skyrocket Your Google Rankings With Social Proof

By Stephen K Hall

Web 1.0 is gone. Web Pages where the content is created by the company that owns the web site is very quickly becoming a thing of the past. MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube, Digg just to name a few sites. The future of the internet is that the users of the web pages will create the content that is seen on the pages. Why else would Google pay an absolutely large fortune for YouTube, a site that does not directly make any money? Because the future of the internet is here, the users will create the content that they want to see on the internet through sites such as these. So, the train is going. The question is, are you on it? Or will you get crushed underneath it.

So, how does a reputable business use the power of these user created content sites? In this day and age word spreads very quickly on the internet. Give poor service, or have a poorly performing product and everyone will hear about it very quickly. Just a couple of unfavourable product reviews on the internet and your product is as good as dead in the water. Alternately, if you have a product that you want people to hear about what better way to get some favourable product information on the web. Even better if you can get third party product information. Video, Blog, Podcast, Internet TV. All great internet mediums to get your product out there to the masses. Great ways to create traffic to your site. And a great way to send your Google PageRank through the roof. If you want organic search engine traffic to your site then you just cannot afford to ignore this any longer.

YouTube quite literally had billions of video views last month. I think the figure was somewhere about 4.3 billion. Even if you had just a very small percentage of this traffic you could still get thousands or even tens of thousands of view for your video, just through YouTube alone. Blogging is just huge and getting bigger. Have a look at the hottest entries on Digg to see what people are 'Digging'. How cool would it be for you if they were "digging' your product? And, for those skeptics, these are not professional videos. There is no huge start-up costs associated with these videos. Many of them are created on small handy cams or digital cameras with the ability to shoot video.

So, how are you marketing your website? Are you floundering on Google on Page 653 where nobody can find you? Or maybe you are paying a large amount in PPC advertising so that people can find you. If you are ignoring the power of Web 2.0 as a way of driving free, organic traffic to your site, then you are destined to remain in the backblocks of the internet. People are achieving phenomenal results in Google in just a few hours or days using this strategy. Harness the power of Web 2.0 and let the world see what you have got to say for yourself!

Stephen is the founder of http://www.webdesigntipsonline.com The site is dedicated to helping individuals and small businesses improve the performance of their websites or establish themselves on the web for the first time. http://www.webdesigntipsonline.com covers a range of topics from CSS, to search engine optimisation, to hosting, and also conducts reviews of existing internet sites.

Designs That Convert

By Janeth Duque

I've been in the web design business for 7 years and I've seen a lot of websites that stand out. I can honestly say that I've designed some kickass looking websites but at the end of the day it doesn't matters. At the end of the day it's all about conversion and how well that website converted those visitors into clients.

If you've got a kickass looking website but it's not turning visitors into cash there are a couple things I would look at.

1. Do you have a toll free number in the header on every page?
2. Is the content easy to read?
3. Is there a call to action in the top right corner of the page?
4. Is every page on your site set up as a landing page?
5. Do you have a logo?
6. Is the content written so it is easy to understand?
7. Did you get your website designed by a professional? Good companies might charge slightly more than your friend, but in the long run, the benefits directly affect the conversion ratio.
8. Did you design the ordering process keeping in mind that the average potential customers might have minimal internet skills?
9. Is there a call to action, such as asking to place the order, or sign-up for email should be used at every possible conversion point?
10. Did you make the information about ordering the product is easy to understand and find?
11. Did you place the questions that your visitor might ask in the FAQ section or as small tips during the ordering process?
12. Does your copy instantly connect with the visitor and speak in a personalized and persuasive way?
13. Make your web forms short, sweet and easy to fill. Most importantly, do not ask for unnecessary information.
14. Place endorsements from reputable organizations to build customers trust.
15. Where are the visitors coming from, are you sure they are looking for what you are selling?
16. What colors are you using for your website?

Yes, one of the most interesting things to me is how colors affect the way we think and feel. They affect us whether we are aware of it or not. Some colors affect us more than others but they all have their own individual properties that affect us.

All colors don't affect all people in the same ways, however, there have been extensive studies done that show how colors effect the majority of people in the same ways. As with all rules, there are exceptions, but to ignore the power of colors would be to ignore an essential element of a good website design.

Another extremely important element to colors is not only the properties or emotions each color conjures up in each of us, but also how combinations of colors make people feel. And to further complicate your perfect color selection you also have to be concerned with the fact that people have to be able to read your content or the most beautiful color in the world will be for nothing. No matter how important you feel the content on your site is, if they can't read it due to bad color selection they will leave in search of another site to serve their needs.

About Author, Janeth Duque, Specialist in marketing and web site design.

Finding Full Package Web Designers

By T. Oduyoye

You've probably reached this article because you would like a web designer to take care of all the work for the website of your business. This includes; registering the domain name, designing the website, getting the web hosting and updating the website, without you not having to lift a finger.

The good news is that there are web design companies that do this, but usually the quality of the individual processes is quite poor such as the web hosting may not be up to scratch and you may have long periods of time where your website is offline (which you don't want). Also the web design companies offering this package usually charge way more than it's worth due to them 'adding value' to their product. If you in fact outsource the different services from different places, then it could work out to be cheaper.

You need to take time when outsourcing services for creating your company website, because your website must represent your business well. With more people turning to the internet for products and services, because they are usually more cost effective, there is a huge market out there. But if your company looks average or even below average, then you have virtually no chance of making a sale online, because people like to buy from the best.

Your website is your online presence; you may even call it your virtual sales representative. It never sleeps; it doesn't need pay and doesn't go on holiday or get sick. It is the perfect investment you could ever make, but spend your money wisely, because if your website is of poor quality, nobody will buy form you and it will be a waste of time and hard earned money.

Make sure to outsource your work from different areas to avoid being disappointed by the result of your investment in Online Marketing for your business. Although you may need to consult with a professional web designer or company when outsourcing the different services to get good recommendations.

Good luck in taking your business online.

This article was written by Tobi Oduyoye of http://www.nitrostics.com - a professional small business web design company. They have a full portfolio, which can be found at their website.

How to Design Your Ecommerce Website - An Important Tip!

By Dale James

How to design an ecommerce website can be an enjoyable task and you can have great success if you follow certain tips. An important tip is to use the 'don't make your customer think' test.

The less your visitors have to think the easier and stress free their shopping experience will be.

In a nutshell the above test addresses usability features and how to design an ecommerce website that doesn't leave your visitor confused and frustrated.

... And a confused or frustrated customer usually results in a lost customer!

Here are some points to consider to when creating your ecommerce website...


make sure the search bar is at the top and clear for your visitor to see. That way they can drill down and find what they are looking for quickly and easily. If your customer has to search for the search bar they'll more than likely get frustrated and leave! The easier you make it the more success you're likely to have.


the navigation bar should be prominent on your website like the search bar. Less important issues should not overpower the navigation bar or you could lose your customers. Visitors should be able to spot it immediately and a well organised navigation system should be easy to scan.


your site should be have a clean professional look and feel that is free from clutter. If there's too much going on at once your customer may feel overwhelmed so make sure you make use of white space on your ecommerce website.


Load time is also a usability feature to consider. Visitors won't wait long on your site if page load times are too slow.

Design a successful ecommerce website quickly and smoothly avoiding large financial sacrifices with an eshop package.

Compare different sized ecommerce packages here

Free Website Templates Guide

By Leroy Chan

You can have a professional looking website in a matter of minutes without having to pay a web designer hundreds to thousands of dollars in fees...

Free website templates sites are available everywhere on the web. They can be easily found by typing "free website templates" in popular search engines. You can preview hundreds to thousands of cool looking themes to match the type of product or service you provide.

Save Time and Money

Not only will you save in costs, but you will get your website completed much faster than if you had to build one from scratch. If you have some working knowledge of HTML, CSS and Photoshop, then using these free website templates should be a snap... If you are not familiar with these skills, then you can learn the basics from free online tutorials. It will only take you a little bit more time to build your site than someone who already has the experience.

This brief guide will introduce you to what you can do with these free website templates.

Getting Started

Before you do anything, you should read the rules that these sites have for using their templates. Usually, they will let you modify the templates and redistribute them if you give them credit as the original source... And you don't necessarily need to link back directly to their site.

They will allow you to remove their link from the templates. But, what they don't want you to do is repackage the templates and resell them. That's only a fair condition for using their templates if you consider that you didn't pay for them and they gave you something that would have costs your hundreds if not thousands of dollars in individual web designer fees.

High Quality Themes

Don't be fooled by the word "free." Many of these templates have a contemporary professional look... And the way that is achieved is with the high quality stock images or photos included. If you were to build these templates from scratch, normally you would find these images from sites that offer stock photos that may then make you pay royalties for using them.

Immediate Download

With some free website templates sites, you won't need to give your email address or register. They are not going to make you sign up to a newsletter and send you spam. You will be able to click a download link off their site and save a zipped file immediately to your hard drive.

Everything You Need

As an example, inside these zipped files you will find an index.htm file, a style.css file, a PSD file and an image folder containing images. Here's a breakdown of what these files are for:

1. Index.htm - This is the basic template which contains the HTML code. In this file you can add the links going to other pages within your site or links going outside. To keep the theme or design the same within your site, you'll have to copy this file, modify it and rename it for each of the different pages you want your site to have.

2. Style.css - This is the file that controls the look of your site. In this file, you can change the font type, color and size. You can also modify or add things such as background colors, borders, spacing, alignments, positioning and more.

3. PSD - This is the graphic file that you can modify. You can open up this file in Photoshop to customize it. For example, you can overlay text over a header image with the name of your website. Since many people are using these templates, it is a good idea to make your site unique by changing the elements a bit on the graphics provided.

4. Image folder - This folder contains the images related to the theme of the template you chose. Besides images of objects or people, it may include buttons, round corners, borders or spacers. Files are either in the .gif or .jpeg format.

Summing Up

If you are afraid of screwing up these templates, then there's always the option of hiring someone with the necessary skills and experience.

Now that you know where to easily find free website templates and what you can do with them, you'll soon be on your way to creating your own professional website giving your visitors the confidence to buy what you're selling.

More Tips to Great Website Design

By Peter Brittain

Very often you design a website with great fanfare, but are unable to make much impact on visitors. It is simply a designer's wasted effort. The reasons are many, and range from an amateurish design to an overloaded site. You may already be aware of the need of simple website layout using templates, key words and relevant content. Therefore, if you want to make an impact on visitors, it is imperative to keep a few more things in mind.

More tips to create a great website

Provide something of great value: The foremost is the need to have good quality content. Whatever you provide should be of high quality and relevant to your aim of designing the website. If you are marketing products and services, make sure that you come quickly to the point, and pitch your products to the customers as perfectly as a sales talk. Your website should influence them to buy your product. Like a TV program with too many commercials is a put off, so, avoid these pitfalls and ensure that you have a limited number of advertisements on your website. Website content that talks about you is more important to visitors than advertisements.

No sleazy elements: too much of animation and audio can be extremely distracting since it causes unnecessary disturbance to visitors while they read website content. Animated banners or advertisements are not more effective than static ones, and rolling text can be intimidating as visitors not be able to read it at their own pace.

Avoid pop ups: Pop-ups are an absolute no-no for websites since visitors see them as irrelevant advertisements. It does not serve much of a purpose to have such pop-ups.

Do not use image backgrounds: image backgrounds seem amateurish, and distracts visitors from website content. If you want to present yourself as professionals, design a website without such backgrounds and in sober colors. It makes it easy to read content put in a simple font type and size.

Easy organization and navigation: It is necessary that you organize content and links systematically in a manner easy to use and understand. Putting everything in a haphazard manner will put of visitors from exploring your site any further. If they are unable to find relevant stuff in the cluster that is your website, they will never visit it again. Provide links which make navigation through the website extremely simple. Similarly, if you keep the size of the web page up to two screenfuls it becomes easier for visitors to keep track of content and relate to it.

Avoid frames: frames make it difficult to bookmark your site which in turn means that visitors may not remember your website later. Sometimes it also shows up without the frames when search engines list your website.

Do not overload your website: flashy graphics make your web page eye catching but overloads it, and takes a lot of time to load on slower Internet connections. Also, compress the image files, which make it simpler and quicker to load on the visitor's browsers. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to ensure you do not bog down your website.

There are different things that you need to keep in mind when you design your website, but as you design and gain experience you will be able to understand what the visitors look out for in the website and design your page accordingly.

PNG Images and Your Web Design

By Peter Brittain

The task of designing a web is incomplete without putting images on its pages. However you need to be careful while choosing the image format that best serves the purpose of designing your web. There are currently three types of image formats which are supported by all the browsers. They are JPEG (joint photographic experts group), GIF (graphic interchange format) and PNG (portable network graphics). The JPEG format is suitable when you have to use many colors for one image. However it cannot be used for images which have text with photographs. In the JPEG format the photographs may look blurred. The GIF format is used when there are less number of colors involved as it has a limitation of 256 unique colors. Usually GIF format reflects pixelated images which mar the beauty of photographs and therefore this format is not preferred. Thus the Portable Network Graphics or the PNG came into existence when the GIF format started showing shortcomings leading to its decreasing use by the web designers and developers across the world. On the other hand, a wide variety of images can be stored in the PNG format. Initially the most popular browser, Microsoft Internet explorer (IE), was found to be an incompatible support for this file format. But as soon as Internet explorer 7 (IE7) version came out with other java script hacks, PNG format became very effective. Thus the PNG images certainly have some clear advantages over the GIF format. Now let us discuss in detail why the PNG images will best suit your requirement for designing an excellent web.

Unlike the earlier GIF format, PNG format supports semi transparent pixels, which means PNG can be used as a watermark on a textured or gradient background. It can also be faded smoothly from opaque to transparent below the content on the web pages. If you want to change your logo with a soft drop shadow with a background of architectural sketches, which will change at regular intervals, then using GIF or JPEG format won't show the effect and therefore they are not advisable. This is due to the fact that every time the image changes, the background for the logo has to be edited. On the other hand, in the case of the PNG format, the image will float with a faded drop of shadow. This will help make your web fast, simple and dynamic.

The PNG format has the distinct advantage of displaying full color photographic images and supports a managed color palette. It never degrades in quality and saves the original files information. This quality makes for brighter and crisper images which smoothly pop on your site pages.

Earlier, the web designers had to face the problem of adjusting the brightness and the clarity of the images on a wide range of monitors and operating systems. This problem is related to gamma settings in different monitors. It is a method by which the monitors distribute the luminance evenly. But the problem is various operating systems have different gamma settings.
This problem has been solved by the PNG file format which allows images to be saved with built-in gamma correction. This helps the operating systems to detect and adjust the brightness and contrast automatically. Thus by using the PNG format a web designer can correct images on their personal systems. This shows how the PNG format makes the job of designing a web so easy.

Thus PNG images ensure clarity as well as brightness of color. Using them for designing your web will definitely add much value to your website.

Web Design - The Advantages of the Flash Website Design For Your Website

By Fabian Tan

The history of websites is only about 2 decades. But, during this short span of time, technology has evolved at a very rapid pace and today, a website can be a whole suit of audio, video and written content. When it all began, websites were used more like a brochure to tell the world that a product or service existed. No interactive tools, no payment gateways, no opt-in lists, and above all no scams too. Flash website design belongs to the new era.

How flash website design can help you

You might have come across several articles or short comments which do not speak favorably on flash website design. But, when you care to study the details of this wonderful development, you will notice that often times, the fault lies more with the designer than the tool. There are several alluring features available in flash website design and the interactive components stand out among them. When you attempt to overdo some of these, the results can be discouraging.

Major features of flash website design

The Vector graphics employed by Flash enables smaller file size. The ability to mix text, audio and graphics or multimedia as we call it, is among the major features of flash, and the interactive feature has made it even more cute and facile. When your website is lean on content, it would be ideal to use a flash introduction. But, for content rich websites, it would be better to use normal website design. Flash does have certain limitations in terms of loading time and you should pay attention to this.

Web Designing Tips For Your Home Page

Believe it or not the home pages speak a lot about your website. A blank and dull home page, reflects a very let loose attitude of the website. Whereas a well designed and informative home page shows that the site is in serious business and aim at welcoming you to browse through them.

Realizing the fact that Websites have become a prime channel of marketing online, it is extremely essential that all marketers pay full attention to the designing of the websites. Hence, the web designing of your online marketing source- your website should be done with extreme care and vigilance. Let us now take a look at the different aspects of web designing and how your home page website designing should be carried out.

The first important thing that you must know about web designing for a home page is what exactly are the important ingredients that to be focused in the home page. There are many websites who think that each and every aspect of their site deserves place in the home page. As a result, they land up stuffing and crowding their home page. Instead, it is better to evaluate the different aspects of your home page and pick up only those features that will be beneficial and deserve a place in the first page of the site.

Some of the important features that definitely deserve a position in your home page are Products that are for sale, news and press release items, search option in the site and the latest events and announcements in any.

One important factor that must be remembered while doing the web designing of your web site's home page is that you must leave some white space in the home page so that there is enough breathing space for your visitors. A too cluttered site becomes extremely claustrophobic for the users. More over the over emphatic information confuses users and they end up viewing none of your features properly.

This tells us that the web designing of the home pages are extremely essential and definitely most important to enable better business and greater lead generation from the site.

About the Author- Naman Jain is an online marketing professional, Presently working with Rupiz Media, one of the leading online marketing company offering expert SEO services, affiliate marketing services, UK web development services and website designing solutions over the globe

How to Design a Website - 5 Amazing Tips to Design an Appealing Website

By Fabian Tan

If you are fairly comfortable with Computers and the internet, you can easily learn how to design a website today. Plenty of resources in the form of free downloads, tutorials etc. are available to you. There are even some sites which offer you a free web site.

Take care though

While it is true that a large number of resources are available to learn how to design a website, a great web site on a particular browser can look clumsy on another. This is attributable to the particular software you use after you learn how to design a web site.

The Images

Images on your web site do look great and colorful. But, they also have the disadvantage of loading slowly. Most viewers expect the pages they are seeking to open up fast and if this does not happen, they will simply navigate away from that particular web site.

Keeping it simple

The web viewers are not particularly interested in your creativity or how well you have integrated your lessons on how to design a web site. They are seeking information and your web design should facilitate easy navigation and be truthful about the links provided.

Fonts

When you design a website, take care to use simple fonts in correct sizes. Oversized fonts and deep tones are harsh on the eyes and can potentially drive away the visitors.

Meta Tags and Keywords

Meta tags are important from the SEO point of view and keywords should be well spread out, both for the viewer as well as the search engines to recognize them.

Compatibility

The website you design should be compatible to all resolutions and browsers.

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Primary Elements of Graphic Designs

By John L Brown

Graphic designs have become a part of every website in recent years. They are being combined with text as a part of website designing. The amalgamation of graphics and text is considered a tactic of effective graphic design. One can find numerous high qualities, cost effective graphic designs destinations in India. Graphics can be used in a number of ways for product/service promotion, such as posters, banners, newsletters, logos, brochures, flyers, websites, etc...

To derive the maximum profit out of graphic designs, certain important points should be considered and followed. These points are related to colors, layout, texture and the shape of the designing aspect. Keep the layout of the design format non-cluttered and clean. It has to be loud and clear, but not messy. Graphics should be in accordance with the text. Proper placement gives a positive impression to the viewer.

The selection of apt colors for graphic design portfolios enriches the visual experience for the user. Use corporate colors as far as possible, but colors can also be very interesting and experimental too. Keep in consideration the color theory, as different colors evoke different feelings. For effective graphic design, use few colors, i.e. two to three colors would suffice. Always avoid using a large spectrum of colors.

Another aspect of effective graphic design is the use of proper font size. Using too many fonts sizes together is a complete no-no. Font sizes can be selected according to a web page. They can be bold or subtle, whatever is most appropriate. For adding variation to the graphics, you can use bigger fonts for the title and smaller ones for the remaining text. You can also explain your point to the visitor through the medium of images.

In order to get highly competitive and professionally looking graphic designs, hire professional graphic designers. They possess expertise and knowledge about what type of designs sell and have more appeal. There are endless opportunities and creativity that can be explored in graphic designing. Your company image is greatly influenced by graphics, therefore be selective and keep them simple yet catchy.

The background color of the web page should be in accordance with the graphics. This means if the colors used in designs are bright, then use a lighter colored background, and vice-versa. Generally, white or black colors are the two most preferred background colors.
If you have graphics included on your site, then it is very essential to maintain a graphic design portfolio. These portfolios are very easy to create without taking much time. It gives the user a gist about your company. It also provides the opportunity for interactive presentation. They are very convenient to email and offer a great deal of control over the entire layout.

What is Coldfusion Hosting?

ColdFusion hosting is a server-side scripting language which is similar to PHP or ASP. A product of Macromedia, it is considered as a complete web application server for not only basic hosting, but extends to developing and delivering scaleable e-commerce applications especially for business websites. Mostly, ColdFusion is utilized in small and large businesses, and also for some advanced personal uses. It is due to the fact that in a short space of time, users will be able to create robust Web applications coupled with advanced data integration.

Since it is a server-side technology, ColdFusion hosting works by having a web server to process and deliver web applications, rather than just plain web pages. The language used is called ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) which includes tags for querying databases, outputting text and interacting with different web services. The language uses tags and attributes, similar to XHTML, for the codes that interact with the website and its back-end functions. CFML is relatively much simpler than languages like C++. However, a strong understanding in HTML coding and relational database design is still very important.

From a web developer’s point of view, ColdFusion hosting requires less learning time and fewer code lines compared to ASP, PHP or JSP. Developers can develop their application locally using various tools such as ColdFusion Studio and only move to the real ColdFusion server when fully ready. The capabilities of ColdFusion hosting encompasses shopping cart-enabled web store,,back-end support for interactive Flash applications and to the extent of building a global network for a company.

In terms of cost, due to the expensive cost to set up a ColdFusion server and engine, the price for this type of hosting is normally more expensive than the normal UNIX and Windows hosting. However, with the unrivalled advanced features that it provides, and the availability of shared ColdFusion server, the hosting price has come out to be very competitive.

Overall, ColdFusion hosting is a technology that helps to build powerful web applications and services. Its biggest advantage over other hosting types is the simplicity that it offers to develop websites that would otherwise be more complex if coded in ASP, PHP or JSP. In short, ColdFusion hosting delivers powerful web capabilities using an easy-to-learn and highly productive server-side scripting environment.

What is VPS Hosting?

Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting is the hosting of separate entities for different customers in a single server. This technology allows the hosting provider to partition and create multiple virtual servers from one physical server. Customers would share the server which includes the hardware itself and the connection. However, they would enjoy the benefits almost similar to dedicated hosting such as their private operating system and file system, allowing freedom of accessibility and security. Hence, VPS hosting can be considered as a hosting environment in between a shared and a dedicated hosting. Ultimately, an advanced performance and privacy can be achieved at a lesser cost than for a dedicated hosting.

In terms of control, customers would be able to access administrative tasks such as changing server configurations, installing software, hosting multiple sites and rebooting the server. Thus it is imperative that customers who require greater accessibility and security of their server to opt for this type of account. If you are planning to move from a shared to a dedicated hosting environment without having to incur significant rise of costs, the logical step is to move to VPS hosting server first. With the price dropping to as low as $10 per month for some hosting providers, VPS hosting is definitely a worthy proposition for a lot of users. Since the operating system and file system are separate for each customer, users can expect a guaranteed share of the server in terms of CPU, disk input/output and network.

For those intending to do reseller hosting, you will be able to have more control on the services that you can offer, therefore having the edge over other resellers in the market. For web developers who plan to set up a social networking website or function-rich blogs, VPS hosting would be a suitable option. It is also a good choice for webmasters who are already comfortable with managing a shared hosting and intend to upgrade their skills on server management, without being exposed to the risks of running a fully dedicated server. Webmasters would be able to install custom applications or change modules for the server. They would also be able to enjoy guaranteed security over the websites that they manage since every VPS environment has its own software to run its hosting and is allocated its own portion of resources, hence reducing possibilities of intrusion.

In summary, VPS hosting is the perfect hosting solution for customers who want the control and flexibility of dedicated hosting at a cost similar to shared hosting. With this technology that enables webmasters to enjoy the best of both worlds, it is indeed a great value proposition.

What is ASP Hosting?

ASP hosting is a server-side scripting environment that uses the Active Server Pages (ASP) technology. It is designed for dynamic web pages and applications, offering a vast array of functionalities for web developers. ASP hosting is normally hosted on a Windows server, typically an NT server, and can be fully integrated into an Internet Information Server (IIS) or PWS. The concept of ASP is the same as scripts such as Java Server Pages (JSP) and CGI that enables web pages to work with databases and programs in the web server. An ASP web page is easily identifiable with the .asp extension on the URL.

ASP hosting works in similar way as other server-side scripting technologies. When your web browser sends its request to the web server, the web server will call ASP which would process the requested file. It would run any script commands and in turn sends the requested web page back to the web browser. Hence, it is the server who runs all the requests and sends the requested HTML pages back to the browser.

ASP hosting provides a platform for web developers to explore their own creativity and design customized web solutions. Web developers would be able to tap on Microsoft’s programming technologies and design web pages with powerful features. ASP hosting is also considered as an attractive hosting solution with the availability of free training videos on the Microsoft web site. This is extremely useful especially for beginners as they can learn the basic skills of working with ASP technologies.

It is also possible for ASP hosting to be run on non-windows operating systems such as UNIX. Some hosting providers do offer this kind of service, for example making use of ChiliASP on a UNIX server. However, there could be some compatibility issues that may come with it and users would not be able to enjoy the full features of ASP.

In summary, ASP hosting is ideal for web developers who intend to create websites that utilizes the Microsoft programming technologies especially ASP. There is a huge list of applications and features offered by an ASP hosting environment. There is plenty of room for creativity with all these available functionalities, which definitely suits those who plans to develop powerful, multi-feature websites.

What is UNIX Hosting?

UNIX hosting is the most common web hosting platform today. The term UNIX refers to a computer operating system which provides the base operating system architecture for many open source companies including Solaris (Sun), Linux (GNU) and others. UNIX has been around for years and is the choice language for mid-frame computer users. UNIX hosting solutions is considered more available due to open source distribution of its operating system. LINUX hosting is a version of UNIX that has gained popularity because of its stability as an operating system. You will find these two terms being used interchangeably, which effectively refers to the same type of hosting solution.

When it comes to choosing between UNIX and Windows hosting, the main thing to look for is what functions and programming languages that will be required by your website. Primarily, it is a choice between PHP and ASP, in which the former comes with UNIX hosting while the latter comes with Windows hosting. In addition, for plain and ordinary web sites which uses HTML pages with no or little database or dynamic pages, in most cases UNIX hosting would be the best option. UNIX should also be the option should your web site requirements include the use of PERL, PHP or Python.

UNIX hosting is associated with reliability, security and high-performance. UNIX hosting is an open system, which means that its source code is publicly available for free from various web sites. In addition, UNIX hosting providers usually provide free tools and applications that have been written primarily for the UNIX community. These companies are also more technically oriented and most of the systems on offer are custom designed. In terms of complexity, UNIX hosting is a very cost-effective choice, due to its efficient use of hardware. This enables an increased web sites per server ratio, resulting in a decrease of cost of hosting. Naturally for this reason, UNIX hosting is normally cheaper than Windows hosting.

For those concerned on e-Commerce solutions, most UNIX website hosting plans come with features such as free shopping carts. Websites hosted in UNIX web hosting services normally have very high up-time in the order of 99%. Therefore, UNIX website hosting for e-commerce is the logical choice and has become a trend in the market.

The main disadvantage of using UNIX hosting is that your provider may only allow access to your account via Telnet or SSH. Also, when considering the UNIX operating system and UNIX hosting, users need to consider their own technical abilities. A strong working knowledge of UNIX commands is an advantage in order to do customizations beyond the basic needs. There’ll be some minimal time required on learning the basics before you can fully utilize the advantages of UNIX hosting.

In conclusion, the UNIX hosting solution should be your choice if you are using PHP scripting for your website, and also if your website is pretty basic with mainly HTML language. It is also a more affordable option compared to Windows hosting due to its open-source concept. On top of all, it is widely regarded as more stable, secure and scalable.

What is PHP Hosting?

PHP hosting is a server-side scripting environment that is used to create dynamic web pages. PHP is an abbreviation for Hypertext Preprocessor, an open source language widely used by programmers and web developers. The fact that it is open source gives it a lot of advantages over proprietary programming languages. Due to this reason, PHP has been the most famous server-side scripting language and almost all hosting providers offer PHP hosting services nowadays.

PHP is an object oriented language. The way PHP hosting works is that the web server would filter a request document using PHP and generates the output from PHP to the web browser. These documents are usually in HTML format with PHP tags inside. The tags can be run on both Windows and UNIX servers. In terms of output text, PHP is capable to generate any format such as XHTML and XML.

With PHP, web developers would be able to perform any CGI tasks, such as generate dynamic contents or send and receive cookies. PHP is also capable of outputting PDF files, Flash videos and images on the fly at high speed. This is possible due to its ability to save the required files in its file system and forming a server-side cache.

There are a host of advantages of using a PHP hosting. For beginners, it is a relatively easy language to learn and work on. While for seasoned developers, there are a lot of advanced applications and features that comes with PHP hosting. In terms of cost, it is one of the cheapest hosting solutions as it is an open-source technology. There are also programming tools that come free with PHP hosting, contributed by programmers worldwide.

PHP is especially strong in relational databases, which are used for dynamic contents, product catalogs and e-commerce applications. The relational database application that comes with PHP is called MySQL, which is also open-source. It is known for its high reliability, precision and flexibility. These advantages have made it the more preferred alternative compared to proprietary databases systems.

Overall, PHP hosting is one of the most complete hosting packages available in the industry. It is perfect both for beginners who require easy-to-use hosting services and for advanced users who require powerful web applications. The value that it offers is even more significant due to its inexpensive pricing, especially compared to proprietary hosting services.

What is FrontPage Hosting?

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FrontPage hosting is a niche market offering in terms of support for a web authoring software product. It is run on a Windows operating system. The FrontPage software itself refers to a complete package for web site creation, flexible web site management, and the ability to edit and format HTML. All these can be done through an interface that is user-friendly and easy to use especially for those already familiar with Microsoft Office. FrontPage hosting is designed for users who use a lot of dynamic functions for their websites and require FrontPage specific features like photo gallery, active web pages or if they are running FrontPage bots. It is a great platform for users who want to host their small or large e-commerce sites.

FrontPage Hosting is comparable with the normal hosting services but is differentiated by its ability to support for various FrontPage extensions. In fact, FrontPage can only work in perfection if the hosting provider has FrontPage Server Extensions installed. In terms of price, the normal cost for a FrontPage hosting is comparable to the normal Windows or UNIX hosting.

In view to extend the functionality and capabilities of the FrontPage hosting, FrontPage version 2003 was developed. It offers additional useful features such as a new photo gallery, usage analysis reports and instant team web sites. The features such as easy-to-use dropdown menus, check boxes and radio buttons enables easy website development and ensures pleasant experience for beginners in web development. There are also dynamic web templates for quick site modification. Remote sites can be connected to easily using the web import dialog can Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). It also provides a great advantage for data-driven websites where people can be connected in various methods through Extensible Markup Language (XML), using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor.

In conclusion, FrontPage hosting is a very feature-rich solution especially for beginners in web development who are already familiar with the Microsoft Office environment. The FrontPage web development software works perfectly with FrontPage hosting, which is designed to support the FrontPage extensions. This is the right solution if you are looking for a web hosting and web development environment that is easy and quick to learn through a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Website Design and Redesign

The website design your company commissioned a few years ago may hold a special place in the hearts of some within your company, but the market needs to be gauged regularly to determine if what worked then is what will work today. Your online presence must evolve if you hope to stay ahead of your competition. Mimicry and imitation of the #1 company in your sector is not the answer. Let DexterityMedia.com help you think ahead, employing not only proven design tactics, but revolutionary methods as well. As a leading Search Engine Optimization Company and Interactive Media Agency with offices in New York and Dallas, DexterityMedia.com is dedicated to achieving a strategic online presence for our clients through innovation, experience, constant testing and evaluation.

Working in close collaboration with your company, DexterityMedia.com's web designers and developers focus on usability, searchability and corporate branding, creating the most prospect-friendly, user-friendly online experience for your websites visitors.

While we do enjoy some of the more cutting edge tools and methods, we tend to shy away from gimmickry and the gratuitous use of "the next big thing," relying instead on proven and researched technologies that we predict will have staying power.

Affordable, innovative and strategically sound, DexterityMedia.com website designs focus on building your business.

DexterityMedia.com designers have worked for some of the biggest names in business. Contact us for a portfolio sample and URLs to some of our work or to schedule an evaluation of your website design or redesign needs.

Web Marketing And The Potential In A Multi-Site Design

The concept of web development may include more than a singular ecommerce website.

I have talked about the subject of web development in light of positively constructing a website. I’ve also talked about the mentality needed to envision the entire site prior to launch so you have some idea of where you want to go. The goal also included the need for a plan for growth and site expansion.

This article looks at the subject from the point of view of a corporate office with a few satellite offices that support and expand the potential of the primary business.

In a brick and mortar store environment it is often true that a business will start in a singular location. As trust is built through longevity and commitment to quality and service the business grows. If the business does well the owner may decide to develop a second store in another city within the region of primary service and support. Other stores may be opened as a result of the ongoing success of the overall operation. The idea is multiple stores – one brand.

Web development may be the mirror image of the brick and mortar model. Why do I say mirror? Well, because in the case of an online environment an ecommerce business owner may be better served by starting with the secondary stores and building up to the primary online business portal.

If you’re thinking, “That does seem backwards,” allow me to explain.

These satellite stores should have direct links to your primary site. Each satellite may have its own emphasis, but will always relate to the thrust of your main business. The end goal remains the same, multiple stores – one brand.

Why develop more than one site?

In web development the idea of more than one site could mean improved site rankings for your primary site and additional opportunities to reach potential customers.

Think of it this way. Each satellite website you develop can take on a distinct list of keywords or phrases. Each will be associated with your primary product. All content on the site will be geared toward the specific keyword or phrase.

If you have four supporting sites that can go online at the same time as your primary site you have five distinct opportunities to reach consumers with your message. Work to optimize each site for search engines and select unique and researched keywords or phrases for each site.

Is that the only benefit?

By developing your web presence this way you begin the process with backlinks already in place from the satellite sites to your primary web presence. As your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies begin yielding results they should do so in all five instances and ultimately this effort benefits your bottom line.

By having five separate sites that market the same product from a slightly different vantage point the potential improves for increased sales. This is true not just because there are more sites for consumers to view, but because search engines will connect with this scenario and provide improved rankings earlier.

Proper web development may include more than one site and more than one approach as the vehicle used to maximize the overall potential of the product or service being marketed.