Business, economic development - the unofficial Chamber of Commerce

Starting a website is just the beginning of making it
successful. If your site doesn’t get any hits, there are no
repeat visitors. Regardless of whether or not your website is
focused around online sales, your website simply needs
visitors to grow. “Auto-surf” and “manual-surf” websites
help in this area because they are a cheap, most of the time
free, way to improve your Alexa ranking. A majority
of the major search engines, including google, factor in your
Alexa ranking - which could get you more visitors by improving
your ranking.

Since over 70% of web servers run off Apache, it only makes
sense to use PHP to serve dynamic web pages. Auto-surf
websites are nearly 100% made from PHP. From the simple login authenticity page
to viewing real-time account statistics, PHP is
working behind the scenes to serve pages specifically for the
visitor.

In order to keep traffic of client information, either a test file or database solution will be used. For the most
part, Auto-surf websites use MySQL databases to store client
information such as username, password, email, etc. and
statistical information like number of sites visited, credits
available, credits used, etc.

PHP works to credit a users account when the browser refreshes
to display the next Auto-surf member’s website by incrementing
the sites visited and credits available, by a value determined
by the Auto-surf owner. PHP also removes a credit from the
member’s account that it just displayed the website of. Both
adding and subtracting credits in this manner is very simple,
taking just a few lines of code.

When enough users are surfing each others’ websites, the
Auto-surf owner can begin selling credits to its members, or at
online auction sites. By making money in this manner,
the owner can pay the cost of the hosting of his Auto-surf site,
as bandwidth is relatively expensive.

Using a PHP admin area, the owner can add, edit, delete and view
member accounts at the click of a button. For adding, PHP may be
used to retrieve a list of required fields, or to make sure all
fields are filled in. PHP can also validate email addresses.
Just as simple as it is to add credits to a members account, new accounts can be added to the
database.

To view account information, PHP retrieves it all from the
database. The same goes with editing and deleting. Some
Auto-surf websites also allow the owner to change the default
ratio for credits. This is a very good feature to have, as it
makes special sign-up offers a
breeze to get going.

If you’re looking to make some cash on the side and decide an
Auto-surf is the way to go, PHP is definitely what you want to
use.

For many people using the internet is a daily occurrence, whether it be for work or leisure, shopping or gaining information. While many of these people are confident in how to use the internet, and what it can do for them, there are also many people who have no idea of how it works, or what they would need to do to get their own website.

Every single website on the internet, be it the one page site of an individual or a huge, multi-page website of an international company, has the same principle behind them. In order for their website to be visible to the millions of internet users it must be displayed through the services of a web hosting company. Web hosting is basically the process of providing a service which enables your website to be viewed online. This can only be done by these service providers as it is only them who have computers, much like your own, which are directly connected to the internet. These computers are used solely to serve up websites onto the internet, lending them their official name of “servers”.

The web host will generally host many thousands of web sites and as such they require a very fast connection to the internet. They have a set amount of access to the internet, which they rent out to people who want their own online web site. As the internet has grown in popularity, the renting of space has become financially rewarding. As such, more companies are trying to get involved in it. You may find that you are dealing with the company that owns that main server directly, or you may find you are renting your space from a company who, in turn, are renting their space from a larger web hosting company. In this case, the server of the smaller company is linked to the server of the larger company, so it is the larger company who actually enable your website to be viewed online. It is really inconsequential to the website owner whether they are dealing with the main company directly or a smaller subsidiary as the end result is the same.

This information is just the basics of how the internet and web sites work. In order to have your own web site you need to do more than just rent space from a web hosting company. For example, you will need to create the site itself, either personally or by hiring the services of a professional. However, whatever you do to make your web site vibrant, attractive or interesting will be totally useless without ensuring you have paid a web hosting company to actually put it online for you.

The author is a regular contributor to The Web Hosting Guru where more web hosting information is available.

What is a Website Template?

Many smart and savvy businesses are choosing to use a website template, and avoiding employing a professional designer. Why? Well, there are clear benefits: saving on cost, saving on time, and ensuring quality.

Web templates close the gap between the amateur website owner learning to create his/her own website, and a one-off custom design.

What is a website template? A web template is a ready-made design for your website, including images, some navigation, preferably several sample pages and in some cases Flash animation. However, it has no content related to you or your business - that must come from you! Remember that a web template must be customized / modified (to whatever degree you are comfortable with) to turn it into your very own website.

What about hiring a website designer, or using a quick-and-easy tool to build your own website?

The answer to this question is easy - your, and your business’, professional image. There is no other way to say this - if you do not have appropriate web / Internet design experience, don’t put together a quick and dirty website and expect it to be a professional portrayal of you / your business!

So then do you have to spend a lot of money having a website custom designed for you? Well, you could. But you no longer need to!

A low-cost, but professional design

While selecting a ready-made web design template, you will probably browse through a collection of different website designs until you find one (or a few) that you like.

Expect to be able to at least see a screen capture of what your web page will look like, and hopefully a “see-in-action”- which lets you see exactly what you will be getting.

Choose your template carefully, and you will have a professional design, executed by a qualified designer with all due attention to accessibility, standards compliance, browser quirks and a lot of other things that you would not want to have to learn about from scratch, yourself! All for a fraction of the cost of hiring a custom website designer or design firm.

Avoid the common mistakes made when choosing a website template

Don’t assume that every last thing within the template can be changed, easily. Of course anything can be changed if you have graphics knowledge, but for the novice, if you’re unsure whether a particular graphic used can be easily replaced by your own image, ask the template designer! This is why it is best to choose a template store where the template designer provides personal support for his / her designs.

Sometimes one or more elements of the template design are intrinsic parts of the template, and cannot just be “swapped out” without technical knowledge. Good, professional template designers will offer a customization service to perform this kind of function for you.

What a template is - and isn’t

The website template you have chosen is a look-and-feel for your site. Some high-end templates have database back-ends and so on built in, but straightforward website templates are generally a “shell” for your website. Adding the content which is specific to your website, and “making it your own”, involves editing the template.
Fortunately, these days html / web editors are very easy to use, but be aware that you will need to do add content to the template to make into your website.

You will want to add your own text, set your meta tags (keywords and description), and possibly insert some product images into your product listing pages (if applicable).

Not the only one!

Most website templates are sold more than once - which technically means that you won’t have the only website on the Internet that looks like yours. However, don’t consider this a problem - with Google having over 8 billion sites (May 2005) in its inde, the chances of someone seeing another site that looks like yours are tiny. However, if you need a copyrighted design, ask the template designer about buying the template for exclusive use. This will increase the price though, and also depends on the template not having been sold before.

Web site templates are a cost-effective way to produce an attractive, professional website at a fraction of the cost of hiring your own web designer.

Julia Jackson is the owner of Xenon Web Services, specialising in website design and database design, as well as an online store of original, professional website templates.

http://web-site-templates.info
http://websitetemplates.co.za

Suppose someone told you that it was your job to host an online
event… and you were starting tomorrow. Think you’d feel
comfortable just taking the plunge? If you’ve never “done” mass
web promotion, then you’re justified in feeling skittish about
saying yes to such a project. Even so: some of the best
professional relationships have come of group projects like
online career fairs, info-go-rounds, “invented holidays,” and
group creations and celebrations. Don’t miss your chance to be
noticed in your niche.

What might be a good online promotion to rally team spirit with
your colleagues and snag some new buying prospects? An Online
Marketers’ Virtual Breakfast… a pet network “dog show” with
prizes for the winners… a Family Day on your forum…
basically anything that’s worth celebrating in real-life is
worth creating a fun-filled website that you can drive traffic
to. Be creative! That was why you became an entrepreneur, right?
To tap that marketing brain of yours.

(And while I’m talking about it, have I mentioned that my Ryze
Network colleagues and I are getting ready to launch the First
Annual Web Content Awareness Day on February 9, 2006?
Well, we are and it’s going to be a fun-filled day chock full of
tips and advice that the new marketer can use to build an online
biz. Visit http://WebContentAwarenessDay.com for more info.)

So, the idea of event marketing seems rather titillating… but
you’re not so sure you can hack it. Before you put your skills
to the real-world test, run through this list to figure out
whether you qualify as someone who can make an online promotion
fly.

Essential Skills Needed Before Diving Headfirst into Online
Event Promotions

Skill 1. Killer copywriting ability. You have experience
writing web copy (and your copy provokes REACTIONS). Other
alternative: your staff or freelance copywriter is going to
manage the online event for you. Why do you need a copywriter?
Because if you can’t persuade people that this event will be the
hit of the century, then you may as well cancel the plan,
man…

Skill 2. Refined web design skills. Of course, you’ll
want your online event to generate profit. For that reason, the
person who designs your website should not only be graphically
advanced, but adept at setting up a shopping-cart type system
where goods can be purchased. (Hey, what’s a county fair without
funnel cake sales, right?) You’ll also need a subscriber box to
collect email addresses… maybe a forum or guestbook…
basically, a *real* designer will know how to add that fancy
stuff that will make your Big Day interactive and fun.

Skill 3: People skills. Do you refer to yourself as the
Hobbit, and live in a hole underground for most of the year? If
you dread human contact, then you’re going to be unpleasantly
surprised when the tidal wave of emails and phone calls come
flying in once your event “takes off.” If this idea has you
cowering in a corner gnawing your fingernails off, consider
hiring a professional people person or opting for more
low-profile activity on the web!

Skill 4: Integrated content assimilation. Internet
marketers are fast on their feet. The best ones know that just
ONE article can be leveraged for maximum content efficiency
across multiple marketing venues and “refreshed” for instant
reuse. The best marketers know how to take a few paragraphs and
a couple of links and with a few tweaks give that tired old copy
a new home and a new life on the web.

Skill 5: Networking Skills. This is the most fundamental
requirement of online event launch. If you don’t have a network
within your niche that full of people who are receptive to this
crazy scheme of yours, the event simply will not take off. Or
maybe, it’ll launch okay but you’ll make a little ripple when
you could have made a bowling-ball-in-a-lake kinda splash. If
your network members are close comrades, you can work out barter
arrangements or alternative payment options (example, a
percentage of the profits).

That covers it- the five essential must-haves for an online
event promoter. If you’ve got it, go for it. If not… well,
there’s always next year. Just keep honing those skills and
you’ll get where you need to be for sure.

Want to witness event planning live in action? Please join me
and my marketing friends for the First Annual Web Content
Awareness Day, scheduled to launch on February 9, 2006 at
http://WebContentAwarenessDay.com.

Sneak Peek: Visit the Countdown to Web Content Awareness Day
Blog and learn how you can ride our wave of high web
traffic!

Paste in this link:

http://wordfeeder.typepad.com/web_content_awareness_day/

Copyright 2006 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.

Picture this scene, an adolescent boy walks into a barber shop
and says to the barber, “Don’t touch me, I’m only here because
my mom forced me.” Search engine optimizers are sometimes put
into the position of the barber. They are knowledgeable and
willing to work on their client’s site, but the client doesn’t
want any modifications done to the text that is visible on her
web pages. This kind of dilemma occurs due to general
misconceptions about search engine optimization. Let’s look at
these misconceptions.

1. SEO only involves writing meta tags and working on
“invisible” code

Many people want to get a high ranking for various keywords or
keyword phrases, but if you look at the text on their web pages
you can hardly find these vital words. They come to a search
engine optimizer and think that he or she will sprinkle these
words into the meta tags and it will work like magic. This is a
major misunderstanding.

It is true that your main keywords and key phrases should be in
your title tag and your description meta tag, and even in the
keywords meta tag, but they must also appear on the page itself
and they must appear in some strategic places on that page. Some
clients say, “But I like the way it looks now.” You may like the
way it looks, but the search engines will not recognize that
your page is truly about Electronic Widgets unless these words
appear in headlines on the page, in the opening paragraph, in
the file or domain name in link text and in the body text of
your page.

So, by all means if you already have copy that works, that can
convert visitors into buyers or otherwise accomplish the
purposes of your site, keep it. But you should also be ready to
listen to what the optimizer has to say about modifications that
will enable search engines to select your site when a potential
buyer makes a query for your key words or phrases.

2. Search Engine Optimization is Tricking the Search Engines

Some clients say, “Don’t touch the visible copy but put in the
modifications invisibly.” Using invisible text is something that
can get you banned from a search engine. The main purpose of
search engine optimization is to give your website the best
possible chance to come up in good positions when someone makes
a query for your keywords or key phrases. The key to doing this
is to design web pages and write copy that is intelligible to
search engines, without sacrificing the experience and
understanding of your end-users, the people who visit your site.
So, don’t ask your SEO professional to try to trick the search
engines, but work with him or her to present your website in the
best possible way. 3. Search Engine Optimization deals mainly
with onsite modifications

Even if your website is well designed, has proper meta tags and
has keyword-rich text, this alone does not guarantee that your
site will rank high in competitive queries. All of these
factors, design, meta tags, and copy, are on-site factors.
Search engines certainly take them into consideration, but they
also value off-site factors such as how many high quality or
authoritative websites link to you. This means that hand-in-hand
with your on-site optimization you and your promotion team will
have to embark on a campaign to get links to your websites
coming from websites that are already highly regarded by the
search engines and by the public in general.

4. Search Engine Optimization works instantly

Don’t expect to get a flood of traffic right after your site has
been optimized. Some search engines work in a fairly rapid
manner, but the main search engine at the present moment,
Google, is believed to have deliberately put an aging delay into
its algorithm. This means that it may take several months before
your site makes it into the top results for your particular
category, especially if it is a newly created site. During this
initial period you will also have to consider using other
promotional methods such as pay per click advertising, article
marketing, joint ventures, paid advertising in ezines and
offline advertising.

5. Search Engine Optimization is Prohibitively Expensive

While it is true that very large organizations, ordering
services from the top SEO companies, can end up spending
thousands of dollars on their optimization campaigns, search
engine optimization can be the most inexpensive and
cost-effective option for web site promotion.

If you launch a modest pay per click campaign and pay five cents
per click and get 100 clicks per day, then your cost is $5.00
per day or $1825 per year. If you learn how to optimize your
pages by yourself you may be able to get natural search engine
traffic without paying the pay per click fees. This is in fact
what many webmasters do. Or, if you opt for a modest search
engine optimization package from a professional you can end up
spending less than the pay per click fees.

So the next time you hear one of the myths about search engine
optimization don’t accept it blindly.

Making sure that your search engine makes it as easy as possible for your customers to find what they are looking for is business-critical. It is also very difficult - good search engines can cost an awful lot of money and require a lot of ongoing effort to keep them up to scratch.

As an example: on Monday 12th December 2005, I wanted to buy a copy of Jamie Oliver’s new cook book Jamie’s Italy from amazon.co.uk. So, I went to the “Books” section of their website and searched for “olivers italy” and these 9 items appeared on the results page:

1. “The American Tractor” by Patrick W. Ertel
2. “A Garden in Lucca: Finding Paradise in Tuscany” by Paul Gervais
3. “History in Exile: Memory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans” by Pamela Ballinger
4. “Oliver Tractors” by Jeff Hackett, Mike Schaefer
5. “Wyoming (Moon Handbooks S.)” by Don Pitcher
6. “Wines of Australia (Mitchell Beazley Wine Guides)” by James Halliday
7. “All Music Guide to Jazz: The Definitive Guide to Jazz Music” by Ron Wynn (Editor), et al.
8. “Larousse Gastronomique: The World’s Greatest Cookery Encyclopedia” by Prosper Montagne
9. “The Teacher’s Calendar: The Day-By-Day Directory to Holidays, Historical Events, Birthdays and Special Days, Weeks and Months” by Holly McGuire (Compiler), et al.

Jamie Oliver’s book didn’t appear anywhere on the results page, even though it had been Amazon’s 3rd best-selling book in the previous 24 hours.

The problem was that I had typed “olivers italy”, instead of “oliver’s italy” (which would have returned Jamie Oliver’s at the top of the search results list). That single missing apostrophe was all that it took for Amazon’s expensive search engine to splutter, fall over and fail.

So - if Amazon can’t do it, it must be impossible, right?

Wrong - here are some things the boys & girls at Amazon could - and should - have thought about.

Two types of problems

There are two basic types of problems that a user can experience when they are searching for something:

- User-error - the correct search term is entered incorrectly (i.e. the user intends to enter a search term that would cause the search engine to return results that are relevant to their needs, but they enter it incorrectly).
- Search engine error - the wrong search term is entered (i.e. the user enters a search term that the search engine does not relate to their needs).

User error

People generally enter the correct search term incorrectly because they either:

- Don’t know how to spell it.
- Have made a typing error

It’s important to realise that there are millions of potential customers who can’t spell very well. For example, a 2003 survey of the literacy (i.e. reading and writing) estimated that there were 16% of English adults (aged 16 to 65-year-olds) had literacy levels no higher than those expected of an 11 year-old (source: The Skills for Life Survey).

Also, let’s not forget that according to the British Dyslexia Association around 4% of the population are severely dyslexic and a further 6% have mild to moderate dyslexia problems.

This means that your search engine has to account for people making basic knowledge-based spelling mistakes.

Your search engine should also account for people who know how to spell what they are looking for, but make typing errors. The main categories of typing error are:

- Characters close to one another on the keyboard being entered erroneously (either in place of - or in addition to - the correct letter). For example: wrong/wring ; for/dfor.
- Characters being omitted. For example: missing/missng ; oliver’s/olivers.
- Characters being entered too many times. For example: impossible/imposssible.
- Characters being entered in the wrong order. For example: disaply/display ; being/ebing.

Your search engine should allow people to make these mistakes and still return useful and relevant results.

Even though we have named these types of issues ‘User error’, if your search engine fails to return information that that the user is looking for it is, of course, your fault and not theirs!

Search engine error

When people enter the wrong term into a search engine, it is only wrong because you have not anticipated it. You should aim to cover as many bases and anticipate as many different search terms as possible.

What to do

The next steps for making your search engine perform better are really simple:

- Sit down and make a list of all the spelling errors, typing errors and alternative search terms that you think could possibly be relevant to your site (e.g. actually look at your keyboard and think about what letters are close to one another).
- Ask other people in your organisation to make similar lists.
- Do some research into what search terms people are using on your site (e.g. interviews, questionnaires, check your search engine logs, etc.)
- Apply everything you learn to your search engine.

And that’s it. You now have the knowledge you need to begin improving your site’s search engine.

Other thoughts

- Improvements in word processing software have made people lazy typists. Software that auto-corrects many spelling and typing errors means that people are no longer forced to review and correct their work to the same extent as in the past. This means that many people are getting out of the habit of precise spelling/typing. So, when they move out of an auto-correcting environment (and onto a website, for example) they are more likely to make - and less likely to notice/correct - mistakes!

- Search results pages should display the search term the user entered in large text (e.g. 28pt). This would help people spot any inadvertent errors.Results pages should also provide the telephone numbers for customer enquiries/assistance.

This article was written by Tim Fidgeon. Tim’s crazy about web usability - so crazy that he’s head of usability with Webcredible, an industry leading web usability and accessibility consultancy ( Webcredible - www.webcredible.co.uk ).

If you’re a newbie thinking of joining an affiliate program or
buying an online product, you’ll discover that finding the right
one is pretty much like shopping for cereal! Every package is
professionally designed to capture your attention. Every product
claims to be the best. Everyone claims to be THE marketing
‘guru’ who can show you the way to easy riches. You only need to
sign on the dotted line (or enter your credit card number) and
you’re on your way to easy street.

Don’t get me wrong. Everyone has the right to succeed and to
achieve financial freedom, but you’ve got to be careful. I’ve
been there and done that so I know that you can end up with a
lot of cereal boxes filled with empty marketing hype and savvy!
After getting cereal box number 10, you think to yourself -
hey… I remember this stuff from box number 2, 4 and 7! Get
what I mean?

Many affiliate programs and online products are re-hashed,
re-packaged “junk” that feed on people’s frustration,
desperation and greed. If you’ve ever had a hard day at the
office, been chewed by your boss or facing the threat of losing
your job, you know what I mean. As you sit feeling totally
crappy and sorry for yourself, you think how wonderful it must
be to be able to work anytime, anywhere, anyway you want, and
voila! you suddenly see an ad on the Internet promising you just
that - for a small payment of 97.90. What’s a mere 97.90 you
think to yourself, if it’s really a lifeline to save you from a
dead-end job and a tyrannical boss, but that’s exactly what many
(unscrupulous) internet marketers want you to think!

You need to realize that this “lifeline” you’ve just discovered
to escape your “hopelessly dead end” job may just be someone
else’s lifeline to escape theirs! There are thousands of sites
out there created by people just like you, ordinary folk caught
in a desperate situation and need a quick escape. They’re just
following a formula set by their “mentor” to get people to buy
into their program. Once they’ve got your cash, you find you’re
on your own - no support, no tools, no knowledge and no million
bucks in profit!

So, before you whip out that credit card and hit enter, stop and
consider the following:

Never jump in when you’re emotional. Like they say…
take a deep breath and count to ten. Remember, affiliate
marketers are counting on you to act on your emotions. Their
websites are peppered with phrases that work on your emotions -
to take that all important step and sign up!

Do your homework. Scour the internet. Find as much
information about the product or affiliate program that you’re
thinking of buying into. Unless you’re really hard up for a
quickie-fix (which is precisely what super sales letters are
designed to do), don’t jump in blindly. There is no short cut to
this step. For every genuine affiliate program, there are ten
others that are just a load of crap. If you have doubts, contact
the person running the program and clear your doubts.

Beware of get-rich-quick promises! Never join a program
just because it promises you a 80% commission as you “sit-back
and let the system make money for you”. There’s no such thing as
a free lunch. If the offer sounds too good to be true, it
probably is.

Learn to walk before you run. Learn the ropes by joining
affiliate programs with a solid reputation for support and that
give you loads of resources to help you. If you don’t know any,
then participate in discussion groups and forums. Get to know
people. Build relationships online. You’d be amazed at the
lengths online folk will go to help newbies, probably because
they know what it’s like themselves!

Remember - it takes time and effort to make it in this internet
jungle of Affiliate Programs. Many venture into it but many more
get hopelessly lost in it. Statistics show that up to sixty
percent of people who join affiliate programs give up within the
first year. Most of these people will move on to the next “big
thing”. You can avoid being a statistic. Do your homework. Keep
your eye on your goal, work systematically, diligently and
you’ll find your paradise in the jungle! Cheers!

With the New Year upon us yet again, it’s time to prepare for the successes of 2005. Did you watch with envy last year as your competitors dominated your industry? Do you think your site is doing just fine because no one has ever called to complain? Well here’s some food for thought: 96% of all prospects will click over to your competitor if they encounter a problem on your website.

While you’re resolving to get fit, quit smoking and pay off some debts, we’re offering up some New Year’s resolutions for your business. Learn how to ethically kick your online competitors to the curb!

Resolve to…

…Make Content & Relevancy a Top Priority

It is, after all, the information highway. People search the Web for information-so give the people what they want. If you want to generate qualified leads and produce more sales, then continually updating your website with new and useful content must be at the top of your priority list.

Search engines seek out relevant, up-to-date information when they rank sites for specific keywords and phrases. If you don’t have timely informative content, you won’t get a good ranking; and without a good ranking, prospects can’t find you. But that’s just the beginning of your online demise. Even if you manage to achieve a good ranking on the search engine results pages (SERPs), your content must intrigue visitors to return to your site regularly.

Studies reveal that online consumers take several passes at a website before making a purchase.

Website maintenance is time-consuming and it’s easy to put unpaid man-hours on the back burner. But why would potential customers revisit your site if the last archived newsletter were dated two years ago? Or if your “Coming Events” page lists tradeshows held six months ago? They won’t-they’ll likely skip over to the competition in search of up-to-date information.

… Increase Your Site’s Visibility & Improve its Performance

Once your website is updated (for the time being) with informative content, the next step is to implement some SEO solutions to gain higher search rankings. The purpose of these SEO techniques is twofold:

1. Create Awareness: Carefully selected keywords and phrases, worked seamlessly throughout your copy and in meta tags, will help your site gain higher placements in SERPs.

2. Increase Sales: Once prospects are on your site, savvy marketing writers will have used the power of persuasion in the copy to turn first-time visitors into loyal customers.

…Increase Your Return On Investment (ROI)

We cannot stress this enough … in order for your website to be extremely effective, achieving an astounding ROI, you must have a detailed plan:

* Analyze your SWOT

Perform an in-depth analysis to compare the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) of your competitor’s online presence to your own. A qualified SEO firm can enhance your site’s usability and navigation, implement ethical optimization techniques, and provide eye-catching design.

* Evaluate your website development goals

It’s never too late to write or re-evaluate your website’s mission statement-not necessarily for publication, but rather to create your own benchmarks. This will help you set goals and concentrate your efforts on critical issues to achieve and exceed those goals.

* Know your audience

An old adage says: “you can’t be everything to everyone.” Fortunately, your website can be various things to various audiences. Success comes from having a clear understanding of your target market(s). By creating diverse navigation paths and reader-specific content-for buyers, vendors, job seekers or investors-your conversion rates will increase dramatically.

* Enhance website usability

Effective website navigation must flow effortlessly. If visitors cannot quickly and easily pinpoint the information they seek, they’re very likely to leave your site and click to the competition.

An IBM study reveals that every dollar invested to increase usability earns $10-$100 in benefits, winning customer satisfaction and loyalty.

* Measure success and failure

Read your log files and tracking tools! Website traffic analysis is essential to accurately measure your site’s performance. In-depth analysis will show you how to increase traffic, trace your search engine referrals, monitor link campaigns, and make necessary changes to achieve your desired results.

…Apply the Power of SEO

Your website has the power to be a highly effective marketing tool-but just because you built it doesn’t mean they’ll come. If you optimize it, however, they’re much more likely to come … and stay a while.

Anyone can learn search engine optimization and website usability. But if lack of time and interest is holding you back, enlist the help of website optimizers and SEO copywriters to complement your design team and ultimately increase revenue.

A word to the wise: ensure that the SEO firm you choose works strictly within the confines of best practices-safe and ethical search engine optimization strategies. Unethical SEO tactics may seriously harm your rankings, and even get your site banned from search engines altogether.

On behalf of Word Associates and U-C WEBS, we wish you a happy, healthy & profitable 2005!

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Nardo Kuitert is a Website Optimizer with U-C WEBS (http://www.u-cwebs.com/). A website is like a magnet; does your website pull visitors in, or push them away? A heuristic usability evaluation will provide you with a first step towards greater visitor conversions.

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Aimee Cremasco, Founder and Sr. Copywriter of Word Associates (http://www.wordassociates.ca/), produces compelling content to help websites achieve top search engine rankings & ultimately increase conversion rates. Wouldn’t your site benefit from a content evaluation?

One of the big problems for site owners is writer’s blog. How
do you continue to produce great content day after day for your
site? Here are some techniques that have worked really well for
me.

1. Pick a topic that you find interesting

There are many online gurus that will constantly point out how
much money you can get from Adsense by creating content around
some high paying keywords. If you don’t have a background in the
area and you don’t have the interest to go out and learn, you
won’t make a lot of money. Research will be a chore, writing
about your topic will be a chore, and pretty soon, you’ll give
up.

2. Try using a blog

The cool thing about blogs is that a post can be any length. Of
course, you don’t want to waste people’s time by putting up
posts that are too short on a regular basis. But, if you have a
nice tip that can be explored in a paragraph or two, go ahead
and post it. Your readers will appreciate your brevity.

3. Keep excellent notes

I always jot down notes in my favorite notebook or in a word
document. Over time I will build up a long list of topics that I
want to explore. When you run out of ideas, just pick a few and
start writing.

4. Go over old topics

Repetition is the master of skill. Look through your blog
archives or go through your old articles. Find a topic or a
posting that you an update and use that as the basis for a new
article.

5. Get inspired

Good writers are good readers. Take some time away from your
website and go read a few blogs, some information from your
competitors or even the news headlines. As you start taking in
all the information you will come up with other ideas for more
content for your website.

These are just a few of the tips that I use when I start having
writer’ block.

You will need:

1 Digital Camera of around 2-3 megapixels with attachments such as USB cable, software, etc.

1 Telescopic Tripod (not the expensive one, the $20 wal-mart 4 footer is fine)

1 or 2 Craft foam boards, color of your choice, white is best

1 clamp on type light with 75 wt bulb
knife, tape, etc.

This little mini studio works great for small items up to 12″ x 12″ or so. First get familiar with your camera, find the macro (close) mode and get it screwed onto the tripod. Build a box 24″ square using the foam board and razor knife, but leave one wall out so you wind up with a 3 sided box with top and bottom. Tape the panels together neatly with clear packing tape, avoiding any gaps or scraggly edges. Find a place out of the way and sit the box up level with the lens of the camera, which is on it’s adjustable tripod. Insert your product into the box and center it on the floor of the box. You’ll now need your light, turn it on and begin experimenting with different light angels. Depending on the desired effect, you have about 1,000 possible light variations on the same exact product. I take pictures of cigars, so clarity of the cigar wrapper is key, but even the most beautiful and supple wrapper can look bad in the wrong angle of light. The cigar bands are also a consideration, since many of them are foil coated and shiny. You don’t want a glare, but at the same time you want to promote the brightness and color. A light from directly above the cigars brings out a bright, highly detailed image of the wrapper, but casts shadows down the cigar a mile long of even the smallest bump…making the cigar wrapper look less attractive than with the naked eye, certainly not the purpose when trying to sell a product to a customer via photos. A light from either side makes the cigar bands glare one sided which just doesn’t work. I have found that the best placement of the item is about 1/3 of the way into the foam box, camera at dead center of the item(most digitals have cross hair type markers for easy alignment), and the light just about a foot above the camera shining down at a 45 degree angle onto the object(this method does require light from the camera’s flash as well as the mobile light source, so make sure you have the flash enabled). Experiment moving the light farther and farther away until the images turn out the brightness you prefer. For me it’s about 18-24″.

Now you can upload your images to your computer and open them into a photo editor like adobe photoshop or my favorite, Ulead Photo Express. This program will actually straighten and crop your images in 2 clicks. Resize your image and keep in mind that the larger the picture and more detail you want, the slower the image will load once online. I usually save for the web at around 350 x 200 pixels with an overall file size of 15k. You can manipulate the save as quality under the settings feature of the software. A few swipes of the white, fuzzy edged brush to mask any shadows or other imperfections on the nearly seamless white background, adjust the brightness if necessary, increase the sharpness by 1-2 degrees, and name/save your photo ie. book.jpg

book.jpg is now ready for publishing on the web. One last tip, if you want tiny thumb nails versions of your products, just momentarily resize the image down to 75 pixels tall and save it as the same filename but add a small “s” for small to the beginning of the filename ie. sbook.jpg, which simplifies the html code writing process immensely. You can write the link and image src code with the same exact image name, just with an added s where you want the thumbnail image to appear. Make the thumbnail the link to the full sized image by using the “a href” attribute around the “s” thumbnail, and you re done. Make sure you add “click here for larger image” or something to that effect so your customers know for sure the larger image is available. Your customers will thank you for the ease of navigation.

Ed Brown is the webmaster of Tarheel Cigars located at http://www.tarheelcigars.com
Email admin@tarheelcigars.com