Five graphic design mistakes that graphic designers should avoid at all costs

1. Using web graphics on printed material.

With many young designers coming from a pre-dominantly web design background the transfer over from web design to traditional design for print can bring with it a multitude of design sins. Images supplied at 72dpi and crunched down to load fast on a website are going to reproduce very badly in print you can get away with small thumbnails but blowing things up to any appreciable size is going to be pushing your luck. There are a number of online sites offering free or very cheap quality hi resolution images which are a good source for suitable imagery.

2. Forgetting about or not allowing enough bleed.

A very common error is to send to print a document or flattened image that has no bleed at all. Generally speaking you should allow at least 3mm around every cut off edge. Failing to do so will give the printers no leeway and will either crop off the side of the page or give you a white border. It is always a good idea when supplying image files to save layered psd files then if things need extending or cropping you can do this on the background layer and hopefully cut down your work

3. Using obscure fonts and not embedding or outlining them for output.

We've all been guilty of this at some point and things are generally fine if you are going to be the only person accessing your artwork or documents. However if someone else needs to amend the files or use your vector logo on one of there publications. Unless you package up the used fonts, they are not going to be able to open the files correctly and some software programs may replace any unknown fonts with a default. This is a particular problem when you need to dig out stuff that was created several years previously and you no longer have your old fonts installed.

4. Supplying print ready artwork using spot colours or rgb

There are valid reasons for using spot colours in artwork, logos that need to reference particular pantone colours for example. In general design work however most print is sent through on 4 colour presses CMYK with occasional 5th colour for luminoius or metallic colour or for spot UV varnish. It is very common for lazy designers to just place rgb images into files and expect the vibrant colours seen on screen to reproduce in print.

5. Allowing design illiterate clients to lead you round the houses

The customer is always right, goes the old adage. However it is often said with gritted teeth and a sense of patience that recognizes that these morons will at some stage be handing over a fat cheque for your troubles. It is often a good idea when first submitting visuals to throw in a couple of stinkers to hopefully get them to appreciate the design you would like them to accept. There is the very real danger of course of them loving the piece of absolute arsewipe that you knocked up in five minutes to make them think you've been earning your money. Still it's a living.

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What Secrets to Create a Great Website That Entice Visitors to Stay, Buy and Return Again and Again?

You are out shopping for healthy, designer food. You visit two health food stores. The first one is bright and cheerful: Its products are displayed pleasingly and its staff, with crisp, starched aprons on, are slim, friendly and helpful with smiles that twinkle. There is another health food store just across the road: Similar products.

A fat, greasy-haired sweaty man, breath redolent of whisky, garlic and fermented cheese, egg stains on the front of his crumpled shirt, the middle of which strains to stay closed struggling to keeping its charge - a protruding belly - within, tired buttons at the ready to pop...comes to serve you.

You are your website: It is a reflection of who you are, your product, your service. Portray  yourself as a trained, seasoned professional. Your website is the only contact your customers, potential and current, have with you.

You must create an atmosphere that is pleasing to your buyers to make them want to stay and buy, and more importantly, to want to come back again and again. You want to aim for repeat business. The long and short of it is this: Your website can make or break your sales...and your business. 

TRICKS OF THE TRADE

What secrets can you apply in the design of your website?

1. Surfability

Do your research by visiting several websites. Note what make them appealing, attractive or the opposite. Always remember that visitors to your site have one goal in mind: They are either seeking information or shopping for a product.

Your goal is to give them what they want without their having to search for it. It is a cardinal rule to make your site easy to navigate. Ensure that all the information is relevant to your product/service. Convince visitors that they absolutely need your product to solve their problem(s). 

2. The First Impression Lingers...The Importance of your Main Page</b>

The main page has a very specific purpose: It is the store front of your website where your visitor lands and from where she/he will shop. Therefore, this page must load very quickly and be easy to view. This is the first contact with your customer: First impressions can either close a deal or...lose this same deal which has exactly the same potential. 

Make things simple: Ensure that links are easily viewable by your visitors and that these links will navigate your visitors to where they wish to go. Very often, a great choice is the use of tables when deciding how to design the main page of your site.

If your page takes more than ten seconds to load even on a 56k modem, your visitor will click away, through impatience, or to save time, seeking information or products elsewhere.

To speed up the loading of your main page, it is advisable to avoid large, or excessive, graphics. Too many banners or special effects often also cause a page to load slowly.

3. Make your Website Appealing to, and Easy for, the Eyes

* Colours

Mild colors are your best bet. If your site is a content site where your visitor will be doing a lot of reading, it is a good idea to keep to black and white. You can add color when using tables as a means to brighen up the page. However, always remember to keep the overall look of the page professional and appealing to your target audience that will be visiting more often. 

* Screen Resolutions

These vary among monitors. It is, therefore, good counsel to set the pixels to a standard 800x600. You may also choose to set the tables in your web page to span a percentage of the page rather than a set number of inches. This will be sure to accommodate all screen sizes. 

* Browsers

Bear in mind that a lot of Internet users will not use the same browser as you. Therefore, make sure that your site looks as good on other browsers as it does on your own. You can do this by downloading several browsers through which to look at your page.

Be aware that the overall look of your website is to make it attractive to visitors, which in turn appeals to emotions and, therefore, lead to sales and to make money for you. The appearance of your site, if properly designed, can be an excellent marketing strategy for your product/service.

Why a Blog is Absolutely Necessary for Your Business and Potentially Profitable for You Individually?

A blog is absolutely indispensable for most business owners: it will help you draw unprecedented traffic, establish yourself as an expert and as a trusted friend to your customers, allow you to create more value, gain more customers, gain and share testimonials, and earn more money.

Having a blog allows you to have ongoing conversations with customers, where any other customers and prospects can personally witness how you deal with concerns, answer questions, and provide value.

You can also create polls and surveys to quantify your effectiveness and get real-time feedback on what your customers like and want to see improved. This type of interaction also tends to create a sense of community amongst users, and community translates into loyalty, and loyalty means increased sales.

A blog gives you more transparency, honesty, and accountability, and your customers will respond to that. It also happens to be one of the best ways to drive up your ranking in Search Engine Optimization, which means increased traffic to your site.

In short, a blog for a small business owner means more traffic, more customers, more feedback from the market, increased value to customers, and ultimately more revenues.

“These are all good things,” I can hear you say, “but I’m not a good writer!”

This is one of the best parts of the whole deal: you don’t even need to be a great writer to have a world-class blog and draw tons of traffic! Let me write your blog for you professionally.

This is an excellent service for small business owners who want to leverage a blog, but simply don’t have time to give it justice. Simply fill out this short form describing what you would like to write about, I will ghostwrite it for a nominal fee, and you get all the credit and benefits!

“What if I’m not a business owner,” you say. “Why should I have a blog?

Even if you don’t have a business, with a blog you can stay connected with family and friends, publish your passions and values to the world, network, create community, educate, share, create, discuss, and most of all, have tons of fun!

Best of all, with blog templates, your blog can also be a fully functional website, complete with a product store, static pages, forms, pictures, links, and more!

Most importantly, however, you should know that maintaining a blog can actually be an excellent business for you, as many professional bloggers literally generate $4,000 per month or more from their blog alone. Who knows, this might end up being a full-time job that you love and that makes you an excellent living!

Does Achieving a Decent Google Page Rank Really Matter?

It's not so very long ago that I used to subscribe to the notion that AOL and Yahoo believed they owned the Internet and had the right to control it. The over-the-top war on spam a clever smoke screen whilst our monitors were pumped with pop-ups that generated them millions. 

During the last couple of years however, it seems that ownership of the Internet has been surrendered to a new overlord! GOOGLE! And we should all point our prayer mats to face Mountain View CA... Or should we?

For those of us involved in any form of search engine optimization (SEO), we are led to believe that if our websites are not recognised and accepted by our new master, then we are doomed to internet failure.

Currently, there are hundreds of tutorials available within the Internet fraternity, offering tips, tricks and secret formulae 'guaranteed' to make our pages "Google-Friendly", and presented in a format which will be acceptable to this Search Engine Giant. Yet who knows what is acceptable to Google and what is not?

Google's regular algorithm changes are becoming more and more unpredictable and this deceit presents the potential for high damage to your website's profitability at short notice. In their Company Profile, Google claims that their mission is to "organize the world's information, and make it universally accessible and useful".

It is questionable however, as to whether their methods offer the world free and relevant results for any search term, or whether they in fact, push forward information offered by those websites that adhere to Google's ever changing and secretive rulebook.

Since only a fraction of the World Wide Web is indexed by the "world's Leading Search Engine", it's not really rocket science to understand that the results offered in any Google search will not reflect the information available for that search term.

The Internet is there for all of us to enjoy. A free information system, with a level playing field when it comes to getting our websites noticed. Google's agenda now seems to be to present information from the highest bidders rather than delivering quality information to it's search pages.

And what of "Google Ranking"? So much store is set by the importance of being ranked by Google, yet is it really that important?

For Example, let's say your interest is in Basket Weaving. You go to the Google Search page and enter "Basket Weaving" in the search box, hit the search button and... at No.2 on page 1 (a place we all dream of seeing our website for our main keyword) you will see "Underwater Basket Weaving", a website with a Google page rank of 2/10 and showing very limited information relevant to the requested search term. 

Now look at position 3 on page 1. Homecrafts Direct with a page rank of 0/10 and again quite limited in it's relevancy. Ok, now go to page 8 (A place we are led to believe has little chance of being noticed). At position one on the day of writing is SimplyBaskets.com, a beautifully presented, extremely informative webpage, with a Google Pagerank of 4/10, specializing in "Basket Weaving".

It is clear from this simple exercise, which can be demonstrated using practically any search term you choose, that Google's awesome search techniques don't really work as well as they would have us believe. Perhaps it's their own constant meddling of protocol that will eventually expose them.

So why do we need Google? Does being ranked by Google make a difference? It would appear that one of the biggest, if not the most visited website on the Internet, Amazon.com don't fare any better than the rest of us where Google are concerned. 

They have a Google page rank of 0/10, and my Link Popularity Check software tells me that Google return no pages that link to Amazon.com - I find it difficult to believe that the "world's largest search engine" does not recognize it's links back to Amazon.Com

The word Google is a play on the word "Googol", the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros, and whilst Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, coined it in an efforet to reflect their company's mission to organise an immense amount of information, I believe that the company's new agenda is to organise a similar amount of dollars into their bank account.

I do however swear that they will get no help from me in so doing! I am now cured of my Google adoration fixation, and I set about my search engine optimization duties treating all search engines the same. 

One can do little more than present an informative, attractive and useful website, with Meta Tags designed to help all search engines. The Internet belongs to us all, and hopefully it will stay that way for the forseeable future.

Important Things to Consider When Starting Your Web Design Business

The world wide web just keeps growing. Business realize the benefits of being on the web, but don't always know how to design a good site. If you have some creativity and know basics about web design, you might be interested in starting a web design business.

Starting a web design business is not much different from starting other businesses. Just knowing how to design a website is not enough. You need to do some research to be certain you have all the tools you need. A computer and printer are essential.

You'll need graphics software and HTML editing software. Remember that you are working for businesses, so you some knowledge of what makes a business site effective.

It helps to target a niche market. Find a field you've always had a passion for and develop ideas for that particular market. In this way you will stand out as one of the best in that particular field. 

If you are just starting your web design business, you can learn some of the ropes by volunteering to help somebody put up a site or improve their site. Look at sites from local businesses and call them to offer your services.

Often the smaller businesses have put up their own site with no professional help. They may welcome your skills, and will later serve as a valuable reference.

When starting your web design business, don't forget that it is a business. Learn how to set your rates and keep good records for tax purposes.

As you consider starting your web design business, make sure you know what you need to know before offering your services. If you have creativity and an interest in building websites, this could be a business for you.

Legitimate Cheap Ways to Attract Attention to Your Home-based Business Website

As a web site owner I can tell you that I have learned so much regarding creating, maintaining and marketing an online web site. I personally offer an work at home directory web site, but the tips and techniques I will mention in this article can save you time and money regardless of what type of online web site you may have.

One of the first things I learned was that it was helpful if you had a good editor to modify your pages when creating and maintaining your website. I found that NVU worked best for me. It is free and very easy to use. I also found that you could find plenty of help on the Internet if needed, because many people use it currently.

Web site hosting

You need to find a host company that offers a fast reliable service at a competitive price. Don't just go for the most inexpensive company out there. If you do your research you can find, like I did, companies that offer a reliable service for a minimal price. I wanted a site that offered some (PPC) Paid Per Click advertising credits, that I could use,  with the major search engines when I signed up. It will help get visitors to your site for free in the beginning.

Ads & Keywords

I have to be honest I made money, but until I read the Marshal free course on Adwords I did not fully understand the whole concept. He really helps you understand how to make your web site profitable.

Ads

I use both paid advertising and free advertising. Some sites that can be found on the Internet offer both options. I recommend doing your research and using both.

Keywords

It's great to have a lot of keywords, but if you are using the wrong ones all you are doing is throwing your money away. You can find sites on the Internet that offer both free and paid memberships that can help you get on the right track with your keywords. The free part was good in the beginning, but to be honest I should have gone to the paid program immediately. I did really well, but once I started using the full-blown version of these programs I was able to get so many relevant keywords that my business exploded. Not only was I also able to get more relevant keywords, but I got keywords that cost me half the price. That was really cool!

Article Submitters

One thing I recommend despite using (PPC) Paid Per Click advertising is to create as much free advertising as possible. I have written many articles and continue the practice to this day. You can find submitter programs that offer a free service for a limited period of time that will save you a lot of time as they submit your articles to hundreds of article directories with the click of a button. You will more than likely end up signing up for the paid service after you realize the time it takes to do it manually. Man, it is well worth the pennies it cost. There are many good programs available to choose from.

Other Tips

I found by searching the Internet that there were many other ways to attract attention to my site whether it be by using peel away ads, creative site marketing, article publishing or many other tools that you can find on the Internet.

In summary there are many tools that can be found to become very efficient in doing the weekly task required to create & maintain your website. It has freed up so much time that I can now spend with my family. It's funny looking back. I'm always thinking I wish I had known about this a year ago. Well now you do. Do your research and have some fun. Please feel free to read both this article or one of my many others by visiting my link in the resource box below. I always enjoy getting emails pertaining to my articles or my site. Your feedback is important to me.

I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I enjoyed writing it.

How to Earn Money From Websites and Doing Work Online?

There are many ways that people earn money from web sites and doing work online. Some of the most popular ways are creating web sites that feature advertisements on them as well as making money selling goods online with your own eStore or at web sites such as eBay.

The first thing you need to do before you can earn money is to create a web site. You can hire a professional to create one for you, or make one yourself either through coding or downloading a script/template from another web site. 

Then you need to get hosting so that your site will be available on the Internet. This can be done at a number of web hosts including GoDaddy, BlueHost, 1&1 Hosting, Host Gator, and many more. 

Once your web site is up and running, you should promote it to help build traffic. Without traffic, a website is worthless. If your site is getting a steady stream of traffic, then it is time to look to sell advertisements. There are three types of advertisements which you can run on your web site, those where you interact directly with the advertiser where they pay you a flat fee for an ad on your web site, PPC programs such as Google AdSense or the Yahoo! Publisher Network who pay you each time a visitor clicks on an advertisement they host on your web site, or through affiliate programs where you place a link to an online store and get a portion of the all sales from visitors you refer.

If you feel you are not up to running a web site and securing advertising, you can sell items online, using your own eStore. Pick a product, set up an eStore through your hosting provider and make money when someone purchases a good from your store. You can also make money selling items on web marketplaces such as eBay and CraigsList.

There are a number of legitimate ways you can make money online. Whether you are looking for a full time job or a part time income, making money through an online business is the most convenient way to do it. Don't be turned off by those wishing to sell you a book on how to make money online. Visit and read the posts at many webmaster forums and you will get a great sense on how hundreds are earning a living from web sites and online sales.

Several Methods You Can Use to Get More Interested Visitors to Your Website

No matter what opportunity or product you promote via the internet you do not have a business unless you have customers. One way to increase sales is to increase your customer base, this means more visitor traffic.  If you are not interested in free web traffic, congratulations, you must have deep pockets or all ready have more than you can handle. For those who are interested in free web traffic, read on.

Just getting large numbers of visitors to websites is not enough.  These visits have to turn into sales. A chance or uninterested visitor is little better than no visitor. Every site needs targeted visitors. Your site needs people who have seen your message and have had their interest peeked. With a targeted market approximately 3 visitors for every 100 will make purchases.  Without targeted visitors this conversion rate drops significantly.

Throughout this article you will encounter numerous ways to increase your web traffic. This traffic will be well targeted free leads, all through online marketing methods.

Do you like to be sold, or pushed into a sale? Like most the answer is a definitive NO. One of my mentors has instilled in me the importance of building relationships as apposed to selling someone. Once the person gets to know, like, and trust you they will be more willing to join you in your opportunity or buy product from you. Remember, know, like, trust, buy!

Free Traffic and Message Boards

Relating this principle to free internet marketing, I suggest you visit message boards. These boards are so effective that I still receive requests and referrals from posts made over a year ago. Visit various boards post messages, meet people, ask questions, share your wisdom, and words of encouragement.

Suggested tips to keep in mind when posting to message boards. Remember you are there to build relationships, you want people to know, like and trust you. 

Do not spam:

• do not post the same thing over and over
• post something meaningful and relevant to the conversation
• do not advertise unless otherwise specified
• do not participate in negative postings about others (criticize or flame)

To make the most of message boards and insure highly targeted traffic to your website:

• select boards that pertain to your product or opportunity
• get your name out and popularity up, post a response to a question or simply post a question yourself
• include a signature file with your name and URL, no email. This can be placed in the profile page. It is a good idea to set-up a second email because, you will get spam
• spend one or two evenings a week posting on several different message boards
• be genuine, helpful, and try to learn a few things
• HAVE FUN and MAKE FRIENDS

Free Traffic and Traffic Generation Sites

Traffic generation sites can be good and bad.  Most are not worth your time, however, there are a few good ones, so choose with care. I recommend Traffic Swarm. This site is better than most because people select a site from a list in topics they have selected to view ads from. An ad is then chosen based on a tag line and a short description you have written. If the visitor wants credit for their selection you have their attention for a minimum of 20 seconds. After that they may click another site without penalty. Again this is that target traffic so necessary to success.

Finding an Effective and Affordable Web Site Promotion That Works

Anybody could own a web site. Anybody could up sell their own products and services to their target audience. Anyone could try to promote their web site with  low cost promotion. But there are not many web-masters that have a truly successful web site with traffic all day through. What these individuals or companies lack is the most essential factor of success – a low cost web site promotion that really works.

If you have been trying to promote your own web site and you have received traffic every hour, my hands are down for you. But for those people who need assistance, who does not have the patience to promote their own product and services, and lacks knowledge to properly advertise themselves, here are some guidelines to help you achieve success with a low cost web site promotion.

Search Engine Submission and Ranking are the two basic parts to a low cost web site promotion. Both of the parts have the same effect on the market of the web site – for your products and services presented in your web site catches the people’s attention. 

The first inexpensive method of web site promotion is the search engine submission. This first part is the act of filing information and submitting your web site to search engines. There are two types of Search engine submission – manual and automatic. For a low cost and effective web site promotion, automatic submission is ideal because after filling up the information, a software program would forward this information to other search engines.

The second money-saving web site promotion is ranking.  This refers to the numerical position in which your web site appears on a search engine, based upon the web site’s criteria. Some search engines rank the order in which your search results appear primarily by how many other web sites link to each page. The leading web sites on this order would eventually fulfill a low cost web site promotion. 

Other types of inexpensive web site promotion you could use to boost up traffic on your web site are banner advertising, classified ads, text links and section sponsorship. Banner advertisements pop up above and below web pages, and sometimes in another window. Text links and section sponsorship may cost more, but these methods helps in promoting to your specified target audience. It wouldn’t harm your web site to try these methods. 

Always remember that the effects of your not so costly web site promotion hits are increasing significantly each day.  Don’t waste time; find an effective and affordable web site promotion of your choice today.

Should We Really Buy Cheap Web Hosting?

I know, by now you are snug and cozy in your own web host's warm fail-proof server with megabytes oozing from every web page.

Right now your probably beaming with confidence because you know that your web host considers any technical glitch appearing on your website, as a personal affront. I am sure also, that you are benefiting from the spaciousness of a 'gig' or two of roomy server space. 

This, you no doubt demanded to accommodate the throngs that are attracted magnetically to your website daily, while you reluctantly allow them to purchase your wares.

Alas, I once knew that same tranquil feeling!

Emphasis here on the past thence, for I recently was required to "trip the Internet fantastic" in search of a new web host.

You see, one day when I discovered that my web forms would no longer perform, I calmly reached for Mr. Bell's gadget to inform the hosting company of my little quandary. After all, I had been a star boarder for over two years and quite naturally was under the silly impression that all my problems would be quickly dispatched, instead I was!

It appears my web host had recently decided that tech service was just too trivial and bothersome to be of importance.

In addition, I had the audacity to relate such an insignificant topic by phone. I guess in some hosting circles answering the telephone is a real no-no.

I was briskly informed I must send in what is called a “Support Ticket.”

A support-ticket I discovered, is an email plea for help that gives you all the confidence of waving a distress flag in an empty room, only mine was not as effective!

Meanwhile, my little predicament was beginning to aggravate visitors, a feat which I must admit is fun at times, but definitely hard on the pocketbook.

So in exasperation, I know you won’t believe it but I do get a little peeved at times, I packed my collection of megabytes and began my quest for another web host, along with a “Gig,” or two of server space.

As I skipped merrily along the super highway via my favorite search engine, it soon became apparent that I could no longer cling to my air of confidence, let alone dreams of frugality.

Have you noticed lately how they have twisted the meaning of that beautiful word ‘cheap!' As a result it’s getting harder and harder for me to maintain my image. And the phrase, ‘Customer Service’ has turned into more of a slogan then a certainty. All too often the term ‘24/7 support’ really means, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.”

However, even though this eye-opening search had left me “Google-eyezed,” I had to admit that there really are many good web hosts populating the Internet.

Of course, while searching for my new host I had to concentrate on such seemingly mundane things as; Server side includes, Data transfer rate, and that ever popular Secure socket layers.

Boy, I don’t know about you, but I certainly want all my sockets, especially the layers, to be secure.

And, get a load of those ‘cron jobs,’ sounds obscene doesn’t it! Moreover, are you sure Perl isn’t a knitting term.

So my advice is, if you have a good web host wrap your arms around your nearest FTP access and hold on for dear life.

A good web host is money in the bank. So, may I wish you many happy uploads and profitable downloads.

As for me, I’ve found the perfect host from which I’ll never roam, who would - would you! Now it’s blue skies forever. Yet I did hear of one that…

How to Find a Good Web Designer?

This is the fourth of eight articles about website design. Our discussion will deal with some of the issues which need to be considered when developing a new online presence.  You may have already thought of some of these, but perhaps there are probably things which you haven’t even considered.

In the last article, we discussed domain name registration.

This week, we are going to start our search for a webmaster, aka "web designer."  Unless you are an accomplished programmer, you are going to have to spend some money at this point.

For example, is the server you are thinking about Linux/Apache or Windows based?  Will it support dynamic pages, or only static, and if they do support dynamic will they support both PHP as well as ASP?  Or do they stick to one flavor of dynamic.  If these terms mean nothing to you, you are going to need the services of a webmaster, and now is the time to bring one on board, either as a contractor, or as an employee.

Web designers tend to specialize, so don't feel like you need to get someone who is versed in every aspect of website design.

If you just want a basic HTML site then just about anyone with web design experience should be able to help, but please don't call cousin Sam who just took an intro course and the community college.  You want someone who knows something about business as well as websites, for you are building a business website.  If you are not going to take orders online, then a static site, primarily for image purposes, is a good way to start.

But if you need a dynamic database driven site, you will need someone who understands PHP and MySQL.  One who does ASP and Microsoft SQL may not be able to help, or perhaps they can.

There are many choices you can make here, but if cost is a major factor, stick with PHP, MySQL and some form of Linux.  You may not know what they are, but when I say that they are free to use, it may give you good reason to think that way.  And, believe it or not, there are A LOT of folks supporting these products for the good of the world, without pay.  In my opinion, MySQL rivals any database system in the world for almost any use, and it is totally free for you to use.  This is one time, my friend, that you get a lot more than you pay for!

The Yellow Pages are a good place to look for a designer.  The size of the ad may give you an idea of experience and cost.  A shop with many programmers is going to be more expensive, but may save money in the long run.  In any case, get several estimates.

A web designer should be able to build a mock ups, or rough demo, for you early on to give you an idea of what the site may look like.  They can put together some basic pages, add images and some generic text to give you a feel for the site.  Do not expect to see a final site before you fork over some cash.

There are generally two ways to pay for a project like this, either a flat fee or by the hour.  If you know precisely what you want, then go for a flat fee.  If you do that, however, do not expect to make a lot of changes or additions that you expect to be done at no cost.  You do not want to make your webmaster unhappy.

For most of us, an hourly based time and materials contract is best.  The designer can give you ball-park estimates and tell you what it will cost per hour for anything else.  And there will be changes, trust me.

Next time, we will talk about hosting your new site.

Advanced Tips That Can Help You Build a More Efficient and Profitable Web Site

You are most likely coming here as a follow up to my Part 5 of 5 articles on creating an online business. I hope you found part (1) one through part (5) informative and helpful. Today we are going to cover some advanced tips that can help you build a more efficient and profitable web site.

I have gone step-by-step through the process that I used to build my online business. Obviously, I cannot cover every small detail, but you can email me at any time should you have any questions. I will be happy to help you if I can. Especially if you follow the same steps as I have taken. I am very familiar with this particular process.

Now that your site is published and up and running, what do you do next?

This is very important! You must monitor it real time to ensure your site is converting as high as possible. You will have some products and services that will convert better than others. After a decent sampling time, perhaps a couple of hundred click throughs, I would consider putting the highest converters in the hot spots on your site. You may not understand what a click through is.  Lets back up a bit. To understand your site, you will need to know when someone comes to your site, how long they stay, what pages they visit and where they exit. You can find many free counters that will give you that type of data. In addition each program normally offers some tracking information as to how many clicks and sales you have gotten.  You are going to need a couple hundred clicks on each link to get a fair comparison. Many people are getting about a (1) one percent conversions rate on most programs. I have some that have converted as high as (25) twenty five percent. I'll bet you can pick which ones are in my hot spots.

After receiving a couple hundred clicks on your links, you can then adjust your site as required. Here are a couple of questions to ask yourself on a regular basis and helpful hints on how to correct:

• How many clicks are you getting from your advertising? If people are clicking on your ads in droves, but are not staying long, not visiting your other pages nor clicking on any affiliate links then you probably do not have a good match up between your keywords and landing pages.
• How many people are staying around longer then 5 seconds on after coming to your site? If less then 2% are staying less then 5 seconds your either have poor traffic, probably free ads, or a poor keyword to landing page match up. I would suggest only using (PPC) Paid Per Click advertising until you get your website fine tuned a bit. Free ads often bring people clicking just because they are curious and not because they are looking for anything.
• How many of your keywords are bring you good traffic. Many times what you are looking for are long tail phrases, which are more often two to three word phrases not just one. Typically the one-word keywords get a lot of clicks, but no results. Your goal is to be as specific as possible i.e., getting yourself the best possible customers as possible.

Okay, enough for today, I can see that we are going to have to break this up into (3) three parts to get it all covered.

What Do You Need to Do to Start Your Own Online Dollar Store?

Millions of people have hopes of owning their own online business, but are not sure how to or even where to begin. When you own a traditional business as, I have, you have expensive such as rent or mortgage payments, inventory cost, employee salaries, employee benefits and much more.

The Internet allows everyday people, who don't have much money to put into a business, the opportunities like never before. Today more than ever before everyday folks can have a chance at the American Dream.

The Internet gives everyone, not just the wealthy an equal chance at bettering his or her life. You do not need any prior experience. You can be a Plumber, Painter, Home Maker or any other of the hard working jobs that people do everyday.

Many are looking to create extra income, while others want to completely replace their current job. I believe the opportunities are there for you, but you will have to do some work at home to fulfill your dreams. Don't get me wrong you can decide the hours you wish to work, but you are going to have to do some work.

In doing my research online to see what it would take to create an Online Web Based Business, I was pleasantly surprised. Many of the online businesses, in my opinion, make it extremely easy to get your online business up and running in no time at all.

Here are some of the things I noticed when looking at one of the dollar stores I researched:

• Instant Online Store Setup
• Franchise Fee's waived, limited time only
• Website included
• Hundreds of name brand products to offer
• Commissions on every sale
• Step-by-Step Guidance
• Carry no Inventory

Your online store is open 24 hours a day so you can make money while you are sleeping or at your day job. If you think about it, most of the work is done for you. Now why would they do that? Well, in my opinion, you and I are bringing customers to them, at no cost to them, and they are willing to pay their online web owners a small fee for that business. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

So what do you need to do to start your own online dollar store?

• Research the web finding the best opportunities available to you.
• Narrow the choices down to the one you like the best.
• Join and begin building your online dollar store.
• Follow the step-by-step guidance provided.
• Use forums, bulletin boards, newspapers, (PPC) Paid Per Click advertising, business cards and many other ways to bring people to your Online Dollar Store Website.

I recommend using a website like mine, but not necessarily mine, that has done some research for you or be prepared to do it yourself. Do not just join the first company you see. There are many companies that will just waste your time and take your money. You need to be careful. Whenever there is money being made, you will find the scam artist trying to get their piece of the pie. Don't get sucked in to ads promising everything for nothing.

If you have a computer, access to the Internet, a printer and some spare time you probably have everything required to do the task at hand.

The cost to start an online retail store is typically less than what it cost to go out to dinner with someone for an evening. Please feel free to read both this article or one of my many others by visiting my link in the resource box below. I always enjoy getting emails pertaining to my articles or my site. Your feedback is important to me.

Give yourself a chance, do your research, join the program of your choice and get started and start making money.

Marketing Your Website - Creating an Online Business

You are most likely coming here as a follow up to my Part 4 of 5 articles on creating an online business. I hope you found part (1) one through part (4) informative and helpful.

Today I am going to cover marketing your website.  You can have the best website in the world, but if you have no visitor then you make no money. Here are a few ways that you can get people to your site.

FREE:

• Fliers
• Business Cards
• Bulletin Boards
• Online Forums
• Online FREE Classifieds

Paid Advertising:

• (PPC) Paid Per Click Advertising
• Ads in News papers
• Radio / T.V. ads
• Paid ads on web site that maintain a high level of traffic
• Paid ads on search engines

Okay, now that I have shown you a few ways to advertise lets get you in the right mind set. You need to imagine the conversation that is going on in your potential customers head when they are coming to your site from any of the above techniques.  I am going to assume you are building a work at home directory site such as mine, but you can apply these techniques to any type of online business.

If for example they are looking for a Home Based Business then you will want to take them to your landing page for Home Based Businesses. You will have the directory for all of your sites at the top and sides sprinkled with other Work At Home, Online Paid Surveys, Rebate Processing and others, but 85% of your page should be Home Based Business Opportunities. It is important to have your best converting Home Based Businesses in the hot spots on your site. If you are going to have a newsletter, which is a great way to keep in touch with your customers, you should have that in a hot spot location. You want to take them directly to the specific things they are searching for. The more they have to search around the less likely you are to converting them into a customer. Even worse the less likely they will book mark you site for later usage.

Let's assume you are using (PPC) Paid Per Click advertising. This is where you will pay a search engine, for example, 18 cents to display your ad to anyone who types in the phrase     "work at home". It's very important to make the key word match the landing page. The next step is to ensure you the text on your web page ads reflect the product and / or service that they are going to be looking at. It makes no sense to send someone who is looking for paid surveys to a program that has absolutely nothing to do with paid surveys. Sure you will maybe get one customer out of 500, but that will more than likely cost you more than you will make. If a visitor likes your site he will look around on his own, but it builds confidence in your site if he is taken to what he expects to see.

There is so much to cover I am going to begin an advanced series, which I think will help clarify and fine-tune your site even further.

See you in the advances series!

Web Page Layout and Design - Creating an Online Business

You are most likely coming here as a follow up to my Part 3 of 5 articles on creating an online business. I hope you found part (1) one through part (3) informative.

Today I am going to cover web page layout and design. It's important to always be working toward your long-term goal of having a presentable, fast loading web page. Studies have shown that people who will open your site will mostly see what I call hot zones. To understand the hot zone lets draw an imaginary line on your web page from the top left hand corner over to the right and then half way down the page on the left side much like a triangle. There is also a hot spot from left to right along the very bottom of the page. Most of your visitors are going to see these areas only.

These advanced techniques are things that I learned only after a year of web site design so it should give you a head start on your business. You may be thinking okay why have the rest of the page if visitors are only going to look at the hot spots? Well a large percentage will look there and that will be where you want most of your best converting offers, but others will spend time looking through your whole site. The goal is to increase the time they stay on your site, which increases chances for a conversion into a sale.

The placement of offers on your site will be somewhat dynamic in that you can monitor and move around the opportunities that you find converting well. If you see one program located at the bottom of your page converting at 20% versus another at 1% that is located at a hot spots. Change them! It's that simple give the top converting programs the most exposure. You will more than likely be given a web site template, especially if you have followed what I did through out this (5) part series. If you did than you are on the right track to keeping your site looking organized and presentable. This means making sure things are lined up properly, spelling is correct and use friendly colors.

In the next example I'm going to use my web site as a reference so that you get an idea of what I'm talking about. You can then incorporate your products and services in the same manner. The point is you need to keep similar programs on the same web page. For example you will find by going to my site that I have a Work at Home, Online Paid Surveys, Moms Jobs, Top10, Home Based Business and a news letter page. Why do I do that? Well if someone is looking for a home based business they don't want to have to sift through work at home or survey programs to find out what they are looking for. The more they have to look the lower your chances of converting them into a customer will be. They as I would, under the same circumstances, will get frustrated and move on. If on the other hand someone is looking for Online Paid Surveys and you send them to a landing page that has all of your survey opportunities nicely organized on one page then they will be more likely to either take action then or book mark your site so they can come back later. We have all found sites that we really liked the way they were designed and book marked them for later use.

Okay in summary, you will put your best programs in the hot spots. The rest of the programs will be nicely organized throughout your site and you will have multiple landing pages. Make sense? I hope so, because if you will do it the right way up front you will save yourself more time and make more money.  Well I think we have covered enough for this part.

Selecting a Web Site Host - Creating an Online Business

You are most likely coming here as a follow up to my Part 2 of 5 article on creating an online business. I hope you found part (1) one and part (2) informative.

Today I'm going to talk about selecting a web site host. What is a web site host? Well that is where your finished web pages will reside so that when someone types in www.yourwebsite.xxx they will actually see your web page displayed on their screen. They will be actually pulling the web page up from your hosts, which is a company that will store a copy of your web page on their site. When you acquire the name for your website it will more than likely be through them.

Let's talk a minute about your web site name. I recommend that is be something that makes coincides with the type of product or service your visitor is looking for. It reaffirms them that they are at the right site for what they need. I hope that makes sense. Feel free to take a look at mine as an example of what I'm talking about.

Now back to the hosts. What do you want in a host? Well here a few things I look for:

• Good track record with current users in regards to uptime.
• Good Track record for customer support.
• Reasonable pricing for the amount of bandwidth you get, (min 500GB)
• 24 hour support
• Step-by-step guidance if required
• The ability to put a blog on your site is a plus
• FREE domain name included with them doing all the setup work
• Ability to have multiple email addresses
• FREE advertising credits are another plus.

I think if you find the above items in a host you are off to a good start. The cost per year is currently under a $100.00 a year. My host is currently running year-end special for only $4.95 a month. There are good deals to be found. A great deal for new subscribers. The most important thing is that they practically no down time. You need you page to load fast when a customer wants to visit.

This is an important step to your success, because if people can't get to your site and get there quickly you are not going to make any money. You don't have to spend a lot of money, but you do not want to go with the most inexpensive host you can find. If you site comes up quickly, presents itself well and you take your potential customer to exactly what they are looking for you will have a much higher chance for success. We will talk more about the importance of having the right keyword, landing page and affiliate programs on your site. It took me awhile to understand how much of a impact these seemingly small things  can have on your conversion rate.

Well that's it for this time. 

The Web Site Creation, Marketing and Maintenance - Creating an Online Business

People are turning to the Internet in droves looking to create an Online Web Business.  It's easy to see why when you think of the overall concept of working from anywhere and having your business online.

Why would anyone want to own an online business? Two things quickly come to mind. Time and money. You can earn a substantial income, whilst your time requirements decrease on a weekly or monthly basis. Once you get your web site up and running you simply need to tweak it on a weekly basis, thus the time required decreases as time goes by.

Today I'm going to talk about what I call vehicle selection. The vehicle in my example is the web site creation, marketing and maintenance. This is the foundation of your business and I would suggest choosing a very good one.

You can choose either to pay someone else to develop, and maintain your site or learn how to do so yourself. I was amazed to find out that with literally no experience I was able to find a company that would give me the step-by-step guidance necessary to both create, maintain a website and offer continuous support.  The cost for this is in my opinion is unbelievably low.

The first thing you need to do is research, then you will need to choose whether you are going to develop your website or pay someone else to do it for you. If you want to keep the cost of your site overall to a minimum then keep reading this article. If you choose the latter than you can move on to Part (2) two of my  (5) step process to creating an online business.

Now then, you are probably thinking that you don't have any idea of where to start. You are probably quite sure that you do not have the skill sets necessary to do this on your own. If that is what you are thinking, join the crowd, because I was quite sure I could not do this on my own. Having hindsight comes in handy in this instance, because I can tell you now that the decisions I made early on saved me a ton of money, but more importantly gave me an understanding of my online business that I would not have had by paying someone else to do it for me. I have total control, yet I have the support necessary when needed to continue my growth.

Okay, now lets go to the next step. What did I look for when researching my vehicle? Here ya go:

• A time Proven System
• A template web site that could easily be modified
• Strong 24 hour support
• Minimal cost
• Step-by-step guidance on how to create, modify and maintain my site
• Total control in the end of my Online Web Based Business.

In my opinion this is the foundation of your business and that is why doing the necessary, up front research, is so important. If you have read any of my other articles you will quickly realize that I always mention how important

research is to your success. I would suggest that you either do the research yourself or use a web site like mine, but not necessarily mine to locate your vehicle. Not doing the research utilizing one of these methods, in my opinion, will cost you time and money.

What You Need to Know to Build Your Own Web Site and Start Your Online Business Right?

Most everyone will agree, if you are going to do business online, you need your own web site. It can be a mini-site or a full blown multi-page site. These days, maybe you just need a blog as a web site.  Find out what you need to know to build your own web site, get web hosting for that site and start your online business right.

If you are serious about sustaining a long term home based internet business, you should have a web site of your own.  Having your own web site will give you much more flexibility on how you approach your online business as well as provide you with a means to give your web business a presence on the internet.  Having this presence and making yourself known on the internet will improve the level of trust you will receive by your potential customers.

Having your own site may open up many possibilities that you could never have imagined. For the many who embark upon their own web site adventure, it becomes a learning experience with no equal.

Your web site will take on a personality of its own and be the front door to your online home business. You may see it as a very patient friend, waiting calmly for you to discover some little hidden function, which opens up a whole range of entirely new possibilities, and starts your thoughts racing - thinking about how to capitalize on that particular feature.

You may get a little careless, or get too relaxed with it, then bam! Right between the eyes - you end up with a big problem.  But, building your own web site for your online business is fun, can be profitable, and most certainly can feed that creative flair in all of us. 

The first thng to do when starting your web site is to pick a domain name.  The domain name will be something like yoursite.com.  A domain name should be researched carefully.  Its best to have highly searched for keywords in the name.  A neat and free tool to help you pick a domain name is The Domain Twist.  There are many places to get domain names. I prefer Godaddy.com or Netfirms for domain name registration.  Netfirms currenty has a promotion to receive a 1 year domain registration for $4.95.

You can also use Wordtracker's FREE trial to give you keyword ideas: http://wordtracker.com

Searching Google at http://www.google.com will give you an idea about competition for any particular keyword.

Use Overture's search box to find how many times your keyword was searched on last month:

http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion

Once you have a domain name you will need a web site hosting account to host the domain.  Web hosting accounts vary significantly with disk space allowed, bandwith, number of supported domains, and other important considerations.  Most annual hosing accounts that would be more than adequate to run your online business will cost between $6 - $10 per month.  Currently, I recommend BlueHost and Host Gator web hosting accounts.  Both have recently received performance awards and they have very competitive hosting plans for your web site.  When selecting a web host, pay special attention and compare capability like PHP support, MySQL database allotment, subdomains, script support and others.

The next thing that you need to do is build your actual web site.  I am not an html or javascript programmer per se, but I can do minor html programming/editing with a good editor. I like Coffee Cup or HTML Edit for small jobs and one page web site editing. You can also use a template to build your actual web pages. You can find them all over the internet for free.

http://www.ibdprince.com - has all kinds of webmaster goodies, including really great looking CSS templates.

http://www.diyminisite.com - templates and videos about mini site creation - click the "not yet a member" link to join. It's FREE. Then go to the download area and pick what you need.

My absolute favorite for program for building web sites though is Killer SEO Site Builder.  This is a PHP script that you install on your web host account.  The script provides you with a real easy rich text html editor.  It also has tons of features that optimize your site for the search engines.

Get a FREE copy of "7 days to Massive Web Site Traffic" at http://www.seoelite.com. It outlines the steps to a web page that can rank high in the search engines, and even goes beyond just your web pages, to tell you "the rest of the story." I thoroughly enjoyed it.

When you get ot the SEO Elite web site, scroll through the sales pitch, then close the page. The "7 Days" popup appears. It sounds like a lot of trouble, but believe me, it's worth it.

Don't load your site down with slow loading banners and images. Use low-res images that have been optimized for use on the web.

Write your web site page content, commonly referred to as copy, then play editor: write, hack, rewrite, rewrite, rewrite, until it is crisp, clear, to the point, and utterly understandable.  Repeat your strongest point or benefit a number of times (at least three). Some people just don't get it the first time or two.  Spread your text out a bit. Don't double space, but use very short paragraphs, and lots of headings with some space between the heading and the paragraph.

When you put together your web site, target your audience. Don't talk about network marketing to veterinarians. They may be interested in network marketing, but they probably got to your site via a search for a pet animal product and that's what they're looking for.  When you know your target audience you can be sure not to speak (write) above their heads. Use words they will understand without Webster's help. You may get by with writing a little below their level, but never above it.

Keep your fonts constant throughout your site. Variety may be the "spice of life" but can really look lousy on a web page. You can vary the size a bit, and throw in a little color, but stay conservative with the type style.

Know your target audience, and be sure not to speak (write) above their heads. Use words they will understand without Webster's help. You may get by with writing a little below their level, but never above it.

Highlight important selling words and phrases with bolding, italics, underlining, and color. Just don't overdo it.

Don't forget, purchases are never made on logic, but on emotion. Use copy that is designed to trigger an emotional response, such as a sense of loss, one of the strongest: "If you wait, this offer may no longer be available at this price. Get it now at this ridiculously low price, and it's yours forever."

Once you have your web site built you will need to upload it to your web site host (unless you are using KSEO Site Builder).  A good and free FTP program to use for uploading and downloading to and from your host is SmartFTP.  When you upload your site, you must upload the index.html file, any other linked HTML files, all the graphics files and any external CSS or Javascript files you may have created.

Once you are online focus on driving targeted traffic to your web site by writing articles, getting backlinks and Search Engine Optimization.