Archive for the "Internet Marketing" Category

Small Business Websites – Top Mistakes

May 16th, 2013

For small businesses just starting out, a website is a critical part of how they acquire new customers and sales. Creating an effective website is a balance of art and a science. With so many factors involved, it can be a challenging process, especially for small businesses that don’t have a lot of manpower. Here are some top mistakes that small businesses make – ask yourself if you’re making them too!

 

No clear calls-to-action

Calls-to-action (or CTAs) are the elements of a website that drive a user to do something. Often this is a conversion, such as making a sale, filling out an enquiry form or calling a designated phone number to book an appointment. Website traffic is important, but ultimately useless if your call-to-actions do not convert visitors into customers. When creating a CTA, make sure that it is concise and tells users exactly what to do. Use copy to create a sense of urgency such as “limited time only” or “buy now to receive a discount”.

 

Poor (or no) content

Content is a critical factor of any website – sadly, often small businesses struggle to get it right. Remember that it’s not about how much content you have, but what your content contains. Users do not read unless it is absolutely necessary, rather they prefer to can through content quickly to get to the main points. It’s important to create a hierarchy of your website content, using design elements such as whitespace to guide visitors to the most important parts.

 

Difficult navigation

Many small businesses forget to pay attention to how users navigate their site. Visitors come to your website for certain information – if it is difficult to find, they will go to another website (possibly your competitors). A good navigation should be seamless and easy to find and understand. Use icons to aid navigation and create logical groups of links with the most important links on the top-level of your navigation bar.

 

Websites can be a challenge to get right. Remember, that if your website isn’t creating sales or customers, you’re probably losing out on a great opportunity. Magicdust small business web design. With over 4,000 small business clients you can be sure that you’re working with a quality website provider. Call them today of 1300 309 379 for a free quote.

 

Posted in Internet Marketing
Tags:
Comments Closed

Making Your Own Online Free Website

May 7th, 2013

You might be wondering whether there is any possibility of making your own website. Yes, there is and this you can do even right away. Either you can engage the services of a website designer or you do it by yourself by making an online free website. How? Good question, through the internet. This article will guide you on making your website online. It is meant for all beginners including those that do not know anything concerning websites or its making. When you have gone through this article, you will be well-informed on the subject matter, thereby enabling you to achieve your desire and goal to make your own website.

I am going to lead you through the necessary stages in making your own website online.

  • Getting a domain name – This is the most important stage and the first on your to-do list. You might ask what a domain name is. This is a name ascribed to your website. There is no website without a domain name. For instance, the domain name of a popular search engine called Google is “google.com”. To have your own domain name, you have to pay a fee annually. It is for the privilege to be using the name. After getting a domain name, the process of creating your site will start. Just like having a business name incorporated does not imply that you have a store for your business, similar is the case here. You can research tips for selecting a domain name including the process of registration.

  • Next on making your own website online is selecting a web host by signing up an account with them – A web host is simply a firm with many computers linked to the internet.  If you create your web pages on a particular web host, anybody from anywhere in the world will not only link to them but also be able view them. In order to procure a home for your website, you have to create an account with the web page firm. It is similar to hiring a shop or store for your incorporated business. You can always Google on selecting a good web-hosting firm. When you are done with the creating of your account, you have to direct your domain to the account you created on the web host.

  • In addition to making your own website online, you will have to create your web pages or creating your website. This follows the stage one and two. If you will be making the web pages on your own, then read on. However, if you employ the services of a web designer, you can skip this stage. As a fresher, you will face many issues when making a simple free web page online. Then as you progress, you can actually give it a professional touch. For you to do this, you will have to use a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) web editor or any other free web page editor which functions like a word processor and makes it possible for you to making the site visually. One of the web page editors is Dreamweaver and KompoZer (free of charge). You can perform a research about these sites and make use of the tutorials to get it going. Remember to study on making your website friendly to search engines, especially Google.

  • Trying out your website is on the list of making your own website online. You can do this during the process of making the site on the different browsers such as the Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and so on all of the latest versions. Acting on this is the only way for you to be guaranteed that the site is working and for you to view the sites as it will be. The good news is that these browsers are all free and you can download them online.

  • If your site is a commercial one, you should have a column for gathering the information on credit card and be ready to advertise or market your product. Visit search engines so that you will be well informed on this.

  • After publishing your own website online, remember to submit your website name to Google and other search engines if your website is ready. Use these links Google’s Link Submission Page and Bing’s Site Submission Page for doing this.

If you are looking to make your own online free website look out for offers or discounts at each of these stages.

Author’s Bio: - Stanley Cooper is a web design consultant who offers advice to individuals who are trying to improve their website. He has written several blogs on web designing. Thus, click here to know more about this blog.

Read the rest of this entry »

 

Posted in Internet Marketing
Tags:
Comments Closed

Ten Best WordPress Design Templates

April 29th, 2013

It is possible for a designer to create a wonderful WordPress design website. Selecting an existing template is a good way to start a website. The readily available templates are an easy option for many websites that are entering the virtual space. It is also an efficient way to build a site .Website design wordpress has a large variety of templates to choose from. Selecting the right template is important for a website. This plays a key role in attracting the targeted audience in the competitive market. As every element is already present within the template, inserting the content becomes easy. There are a number of templates available for download that help in creating an excellent WordPress website. Continue to read ahead to come across the 10 best templates.

The Best

  1. Nimble theme: It is a great responsive there from Elegant Themes. The theme is in-built with many features and users can select a feature according to their requirement. Arranging the content is easy and helps in creating a compelling and attractive appearance. Round the clock customer support from the company is an added advantage for users utilizing this particular theme.

  2. Big Bang Theme: Big Bang holds the second position as WordPress theme. It is equipped with all the necessary features that one would like to have in their website. This response of the site is out of the box and provides maximum customization options.

  3. Dano Theme: Though small, it provides the maximum support for any website. This is good for websites that give importance to the content rather than the images. The theme gives ample amount of support to different resolutions of images.

  4. Avada Theme: it is yet another good responsive WordPress template. It is well acclaimed for its multipurpose responsive features. With customization options, websites will have the most out of the template giving what the customer needs to see in a website.

  5. Modernize Theme: the drag-and-drop page at the back end is the main attraction of this template. Nothing concentrates on using cutting-edge technology, which makes it easy for any website created to bring out the best for the business. It is one of the best examples for response of technology.

  6. Pinpoint Theme: with a focus on increasing business, this theme comes with a number of customization options. It is also possible for a creator to choose from color options for the background. Documentation is also provided that explain everything in detail.

  7. Origin Theme: it is the newest entrant into the WordPress theme and a perfect solution for grid-based portfolio theme. It also supports SEO and localization that eliminates the need to install additional plug-ins.,

  8. Expression Theme: it is one of the bestselling WordPress portfolio themes. It provides ample amount of attention on the images. This is good for those where images are the major portion of the content.

  9. Core Theme: it gives a simple approach to a WordPress theme for portfolio. Full width slideshow and inclusion of social widget gives the ability to share the pages easily. The simple and clean design makes it possible to create a unique style and give a professional appearance.

  10. Notebook Theme: full localization support is the major advantage of this theme. This is good for those who wish to make the presence of their website in different languages. It is also easy to set up and comes with a number of options.

It is important to have an attractive website to promote a product or a service. As stated above, one can select the best WordPress design themes available that will improve the overall appearance of a website. As they are readily available, it becomes easy to integrate all the content and images according to the need of a business. With good responsive system implemented in creating these themes, it is possible for the customer to access the website from different devices. This is an added advantage for it increases the traffic to the website. Have a look at Toronto wordpress themes amongst others for great designs.

Author’s Bio: - This article has been written by Jim Blair on behalf of nvision Solutions. Jim Blair invites you to read wordpress design tips and tricks at http://www.nvisionsolutions.ca/website-solutions/wordpress-development/

 

Posted in Internet Marketing
Tags:
Comments Closed

How Mark Leslie Built a Market-leading Tech Company

April 17th, 2013

It takes so much time, money and effort to build a market-leading technology company like Veritas Software Corporation, and only the chairman and founder of the company knows best how to do it. Being the founder and chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Veritas, creating the $1.5 billion revenue company did not come on a silver platter. It took a lot of time, money, effort, dedication and lot of setbacks to be where the company is today. The company started off on a $4 million investment budget, and several years down the line, it is a billion dollar profit making company.

 

Veritas Software Corp was founded back in 1990 and was headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. The sole aim of the company was to design, develop and market superior quality availability software products and storage management products that would help businesses effectively manage both their offline and online data computing systems. The products were designed to help improve system efficiency, performance, manageability and availability while ultimately reducing the cost of running the business.

 

During his tenure as the Chief executive officer, Mark Leslie managed to recruit over 6000 employees who were deployed throughout the country to help with the delivery of the Veritas products. The employees formed worldwide direct sales and marketing force and eventually a network of OEM partners and resellers in strategic countries including Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific to help enhance product delivery.

 

From a company that started off on a mere $4M, at the time of Mark Leslie stepping down as chairman the company’s value was $16 billion, indeed a great difference. This huge difference is attributed to his knowledge, experience and expertise in business management. Being a holder of a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics and Mathematics, and being a graduate of the Harvard School of Business, it comes as no surprise that Mark Leslie was able to manage a company and steer it to the right direction.

 

2005 saw the company merge with Symantec for effective service and products delivery. The leadership qualities that he exhibited during his tenure at the company were indeed very instrumental in steering the company to where it is today. As CEO and Chairman of Veritas, he broke so many traditional rules to create a market-leading tech company that would radically transform the tech-world.  Despite breaking the rules, he was quick to create a business that had an unprecedented 10 times growth and great revenue that attracted investors and stakeholders from all walks of life and from all over the world.

 

Posted in Internet Marketing
Comments Closed

Photography Tips and Tricks on Your iPhone

April 16th, 2013

It really doesn’t matter if you are an aspiring photographer or someone who just likes to click pictures with your iPhone. Listed below are few tips and tricks that would really help you to click and have the best pictures on your iPhone.

  1. You can take a snap instantly even from your locked iPhone screen 

If something happens you have to click and capture a moment but it takes time to reach your iPhone and unlock it and then you can take a picture, alas the moment passes away to do all these things. Now you do not have to miss the moments as you are directly able to click the picture from your home screen without unlocking your iPhone. You just have to tap on the home screen and the icon of the camera would appear thus activating your camera application and you would be able to click pictures.

  1. Take shoots of DLSR quality 

You no longer have to wait to buy a DSLR for a DSLR quality picture as the lens in the latest iPhone is olloclip which allows you to take good quality photographs without the bulkiness and the expense of a DSLR. It is a tiny 3 in 1 lens, has an amazing clarity and detailing.

  1. Stand still 

Holding you phone properly is the most basic feature of taking a nice picture, you can try to hold your phone with both the hands and then you can rest both the elbows on your chest for support and at last can stabilize yourself against anything unmovable like a wall. Thus you would be able to take pictures without haziness.

  1. Try to look for the light 

It is not always necessary to have DSLR to get good pictures, but it is necessary to know the strength of your cameras. Light being one of the most important factor while you are taking a picture ,if there is more amount of light the shutter of the camera would be able to stop the motion of the moving object and click a picture which is not blur.

  1. You can use flash 

Some of the iPhones have built in flash units. Good amount of light is always important for taking good and sharp photographs. Thus flash light improves the photographs you click to a large extent.

  1. You can take multiple shots 

If you can take multiple shorts in quick successions then you can ensure that you have taken a good picture. Because it becomes quite difficult to take pictures of moving object such as a child playing, it is next to impossible that you would get the perfect shot all at once, so multiple shots ensures that one of them is the best.

  1. Remove all possible noise from the photographs 

Once you have clicked the picture it becomes important to remove the unnecessary noise from the photographs. There are plenty of apps which help you with the editing and filtering out the unnecessary things. You would get stunning and superb results by mixing and matching thus creating your own style, the resultant photograph would look unique.

Author Bio: Sachin, the author of this post has written numerous interesting and informative posts for his readers. He has also written for many reputed brands such as Protect your bubble UK

.

Read the rest of this entry »

 

Posted in Internet Marketing
Tags:
Comments Closed

Tips To Create A Mobile Website

April 5th, 2013

Smartphone1If your web analytics software indicates that a number of people are reaching your website via a mobile device such as an iPhone, Android phone or tablet PC, it is time to create a mobile version of your website, for your online business. It has become very important to develop a mobile website as the number of mobile users surfing the internet has grown dramatically over the last year or so.

Understanding the benefits of developing a dedicated mobile website is the key to attracting potential new customers to your business and the following top tips will help you to create a mobile website.

Top Tips To Create A Mobile Website

1. Make it extremely easy for your mobile visitors to find the information they are searching for

According to a recent analysis of mobile search trends, mobile devices accounted for about 30 percent of all online searches related to restaurants. In addition, 9 out of 10 such searches converted to a sale – either a visit to the restaurant or an order over phone.

People using mobile phones are searching for quick and easily accessible information – like a phone number, opening times or a location map. If you are looking to close sales, make it extremely easy for mobile users to reach you. Show them clear navigation buttons so that they can reach any page they want, in a click or two.

2. Make your mobile pages load fast, real fast!

Mobile users will not wait ten seconds for your website to load. Ideally your site needs to load in five seconds or less. If your mobile pages take forever to load, your mobile users will go back to the search results, or abandon their search altogether.

Limit the size of images and reduce the use of Flash content. Make loading speed your priority and people will love you for that.

3. Use as few design elements as possible

You have very limited space to work with. Displaying lots of images and links on every page will lead to a poor user experience, which is something you never want to happen.

A clean and clutter free design is what will get your visitors attention. Always remember that your site will be displayed on a very small screen size. Make sure that there is very little scrolling, if any and only display the important information that matters.

4. Use a large font and navigation buttons

Make the font and navigation elements large enough for both eyes and fingers. Tapping is the new clicking. Mobile users tap on navigation buttons to navigate within your site. Make sure the visitors can read the text easily and navigate comfortably.

5. Redirect your visitors to your mobile website

Make sure that the visitors reaching your site via a mobile device are automatically redirected to your dedicated mobile website. Your mobile website should load quickly and provide only necessary information, such as basic product details, location map and telephone number. Reserve the sexy graphics, Flash elements, and long text content for your regular website.

6. Give your visitors the option to visit your traditional desktop website

Sometimes the mobile users will want to visit the website designed for desktop use. Therefore it is important that you provide a link to your regular website. This will allow your visitors to explore your main website, if they choose to.

7. Track your visitors with web analytics

Create a separate Google Web Analytics profile for your mobile website. This will help you track your desktop and mobile websites separately. You will then be able to analyse how user behaviour varies between the two website versions.

The following “5 Things To Think About When Creating A Mobile Website” video also contains a number of helpful tips to create a mobile website.

Follow these tips to create a mobile website and your business will see an increase in sales and profits, starting from day one.

 

Posted in Internet Marketing
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Comments Closed

5 Tips for Designing an SEO-Friendly Website

April 4th, 2013

Webmasters everywhere are getting on board with search engine optimization, or SEO, as this new trend quickly becomes one of the hottest internet marketing strategies in the world. Optimizing your website helps to ensure strong page ranks in popular search engines like Google, ensuring that new traffic will find its way to your pages. SEO can be tricky, but remember these 5 tips and you’ll be able to set yourself up for success easily.

  1. Choose Your Domain Name Carefully
    Everything begins with a name, and you should be careful about choosing a domain name for your website. This is the name by which both live visitors and search engine spiders will come to know you, and it should be a strong name that reflects both your content and purpose. Choose a name that’s relevant without being boring, that can help build your brand without being too vague. The perfect domain name is one that reflects your website’s content and helps build your brand at the same time.
  2. Make Use of Keywords
    One of the founding principles of SEO is the use of keywords to attract the attention of search engine spiders. Websites are indexed by search engines according to many parameters, but keywords are among the most important. Your website should strive to naturally incorporate highly searched keywords into its content. Talk to an SEO specialist about important keywords, and how you can incorporate them into your pages. This will help ensure that your website grows into a strong presence on the web.
  3. Allow for Regular Updates
    Search engines give special favor to websites that are frequently updated. As a rule, readers are not interested in old and outdated content. They want websites that are fresh, current and interesting. Allowing for regular updates on your website ensures that you will be able to keep generating fresh content that will improve your standings in the search engine page results. Incorporate a blog into your website, or put a news section on your front page to keep the new updates coming on a regular basis.
  4. Go Easy On Flash
    Flash is great for designing sleek websites with sliding menus, graphical animations and other features, but it is not especially good for SEO. Search engines have a tough time reading Flash content, and as a result, Flash-based websites are often not ranked as highly as pages built on HTML. If your pages can’t be accurately read and indexed by search engines, then your efforts will be largely in vain. Avoid building a whole website in Flash, as it could end up hurting you in the end.
  5. Keep Your Website Clean
    Search engines know when someone is trying to get ahead using underhanded techniques. Black-hat SEO tactics will only hurt your website’s standings in the long run, so keep it clean. Avoid unnatural links, don’t spam your pages with repetitive keywords, and above all–never try to trick the search engines. Playing by the rules will benefit you here. Make your visitors happy by building a clean, relevant website that is not misleading or shady. This is the best way to ensure strong SEO for your website.
 

Posted in Internet Marketing
Comments Closed

3 Ways Your Website Design Directly Impacts your SEO Strategy

March 18th, 2013

Your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be influenced by many things, but the one you have the most control over is your websites design. If you can make your website more search engine friendly then your website will rise through the search engine results pages (SERPs), and more search engine users will visit your website. Here are three ways in which your web design may affect your SEO. The first is a bad element you need to remove, the second is a good element you need to add, and the third is an element that is needed if you do not want to lose web traffic.

English: The three biggest web search engines

English: The three biggest web search engines (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1 – The use of Flash or JavaScript

If you program parts or all of your website via either of these two methods, you are going to have a hard time rising up the search engine results pages. The search engines cannot read this type of web page coding.

If your pages are constructed completely with JavaScript or Flash, then the search engines are going to have a very hard time indexing any of your website. If parts of your website are made from HTML then the search engines will be forced to index your website from the snippets of information they can glean from those bits, which may skew the way the website is interpreted by the search engine.

Flash and JavaScript elements may slow down your websites loading time, which has negative SEO implications. If you remove the JavaScript from your site, and only use Flash for videos, then you will eventually rank higher than the websites that still use JavaScript and Flash; thereby helping you to steal their traffic.

2 – Add a footer link to every webpage

As part of the design process you should include a footer on every page of your website. This footer should contain internal and external links. They should link to other related pages on the site, and the bigger pages such as the “Contact Us” page and “Home Page.” You should place any external links in here too so that they are out of the way. A link footer section makes your website easier to navigate. It makes your website more usable, and will help to stop people leaving your website in frustration.

Doing this will increase your websites SEO value, since a well internally linked website will rank higher than a website that has poor internal linking. It also means you can mirror any graphical, JavaScript or Flash links in your web content. Few people use textual anchor text in their main web content because it does not look nice, so they use a graphical, JavaScript or Flash link (anchor). Sadly, this has a very poor SEO value, so you can make the same link but with text in on the bottom of the page where it still looks nice.

3 – Fast website loading times

The amount of time it takes your website to render (appear after being clicked on) is vital to your websites usability. If it takes longer than three seconds, you are going to lose a lot of viewers.

The amount of time between the page render and it finishing loading is going to affect your SEO. An 8MB heavy page will take almost four seconds. This is roughly within tolerance range. If your page is taking five or more seconds to load then it will not rise very quickly through the SERPs.

Lower the weight of your web page by removing or shrinking images and graphical elements. Cut unnecessary animations and features if they do not add directly to your websites usability.

 

Posted in Internet Marketing
Tags: , , , , , , ,
Comments Closed

How to Design a Website that Helps Your Small Business Instead of Hurts

March 15th, 2013

In an ever more competitive global economy, having a website is an important piece of your marketing strategy. This is especially true if you are a small business, because you simply cant compete with the advertising budgets of bigger, more established businesses. The internet helps level the playing field. If your content is compelling and catches the attention of viewers, its ranking will rise, leading to more viewers and potential customers. Unfortunately, many small business owners make rookie mistakes that turn their websites into weapons of self-destruction.

English: A tag cloud (a typical Web 2.0 phenom...

English: A tag cloud (a typical Web 2.0 phenomenon in itself) presenting Web 2.0 themes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Keep It Simple

A major trap for businesses setting up their site is to fall for all the fancy extras offered by DIY website builders and designers. All these things just confuse people viewing your page. The UI of your site needs to be as user-friendly as possible. Have a brief home page that explains your company, a contact page, and pages to clearly describe your products or services. If youre doing an e-commerce site, make sure that product pages and the check out pages are organized and easy to navigate. If the check out process is simple, it makes it easier for customers to buy your merchandise.

Dont Go Wild On The Graphics

This goes back to the rule of simplicity. Graphics can draw in viewers when used properly and in moderation. Too many simply make it harder to load your page and make navigation of your website confusing and difficult. Use graphics like punctuation marks; sparingly and where emphasis is needed. Keep in mind a simple web page loads better on mobile devices. This is important as more and more people use their smartphones and tablets to access the internet.

Understand How Page Ranking Works

Getting to the front page of search results created an entirely new branch of marketing and advertising based on the perfect search engine formula. However, Web 2.0 changed the game. As major search engines like Google grew, they created more advanced search formulas that do more than see if web pages have the required number of keywords. They look at the quality of content and if people actually view your site. Good options for improving your ranking include ease of navigation and a blog that provides information about your company and its products.

Use A Website to Educate As Well As Impress

The secret to great marketing on the internet is to meet a need. Some marketing books call it finding pain. A customer who needs information on a problem, like replacing a car part on an older car, will look specifically for sites that have the relevant information. That is why its important to use your site to educate your customers about your products and how they meet their specific needs. Using blogs, FAQ pages, and product descriptions can help you do that. Dont be wordy. Clearly explain your services and products and what they can do. The customers who need you will do the rest.

Simple To Do

By following theses tips youll see more traffic come to your site. It also is important for companies building websites to learn from mistakes and experiment. Pay attention to metrics to see how different styles and content attract viewers.

 

Posted in Internet Marketing
Tags: , , , , , ,
Comments Closed

March 12th, 2013

 

Posted in Internet Marketing
Comments Closed