First Impressions : Do-It-Yourself?Written by Tom Stone
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business is relatively new, you MUST consider how stretched your time already is, and realize true value of that time. Squeeze in learning process of new web design software and multiply that time element by number of late night hours troubleshooting a new server (just to begin with); and you're likely to wish very quickly you had just trusted your brother who claimed to know exactly how to publish a website. (That's a whole other story.)Web design firms have latest software, have bagfuls of tricks, and will usually deal with any glitches along way, unbeknownst to yourself: THE CUSTOMER! Save yourself lots of headaches by previewing whatever samplings of work you can before further considering who will be your VanGogh.com. Clearly communicate intent of your site-to-be, get quotes and deadlines in writing, and don't settle for anything less than your vision.
Chairman, Georgia New Business Association; Co-Founder SouthernSites.net
| | How To Double Or Triple Your Page Views? Written by David Bell
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Just because you are offering something for free (no money), it doesn't mean that you can't ask for something in return--like their email address. This is how some very successful ezines build their lists. They offer something that is valuable for FREE, but ask visitor to join their opt-in list. This really is a win-win situation for visitor, because they can unsubscribe two minutes later (if they really want to), but by staying on list they will likely be exposed to more information that is of interest to them. The theory is that if they are interested in FREE site information, they will absolutely love even more current material in ezine. 4) Internal Banner Exchanger This tool was an afterthought that has paid huge dividends. We all know that Banners and Banner Exchangers are quickly losing their effectiveness, yet a large part of advertising on Internet still revolves around them. So we thought 'why not use them in a way that keeps traffic within site, but allows us to test various banners?' If we discover that one particular banner design or word arrangement is working especially well, then perhaps some funds can be devoted to using it on outside sites. The banners also reinforced image of pages that they were aimed at without losing one single click through. There are of course many other considerations for designing your main page. These are just ones that were most pertinent to us. To summarize; make sure that you have a very appealing and professional look to your page that is consistent throughout site, use high impact, value-oriented words in your copy, reduce number of outgoing links and increase number of internal site links. And most important of all...create a work of art that you are proud of, but not afraid to improve upon (change). I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions.
David Bell is Manager, Online Marketing, at http://www.wspromotion.com/ , a leading Search Engine Optimization services firm and Advertising Agency.
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