Making your Websites More CompellingWritten by Andrea J. Lee
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Think of these mini-graphics as a way of showing consideration to your reader. They want to read your material and you help them make it easy by providing mental white space and places to rest their eyes. Just a few No-No's: Don't overdo. The power of visual communication can be diluted if too many images are used on each page. There is both art and science to finding right balance since too many images on a website can be just as ineffective as too few. The key is to work at finding this balance by studying other websites. Don't use Flash or other animation. More often than not, flash/animation comes across as cheap rather than professional and has only been shown to be effective in very specific circumstances. Moreover, web pages created with Flash don't rank well with search engines. If you must use it, do so very sparingly and be sure to have it professionally designed. Whatever you do, don't be bland. With millions of websites published every day, you must stand out in order to be noticed. Graphics that reflect you, your offering and your personality will help you become more attractive to clients -- quickly, affordably and with style. One of challenges of working online is to alleviate your client's natural reservations in a new and unfamiliar environment - virtual world. Making things more comfortable for them is your number one priority and graphics will help you achieve that. By going extra mile to make your websites look 100% professional, you become more credible in your own eyes as well.
Andrea J. Lee coaches entrepreneurs and online business owners. As Thomas J. Leonard's General Manager, she helped build and manage the largest network and trainer of personal and business coaches in the world. Now the CEO of Andrea J. Lee Group of Companies, she writes, speaks and consults on Marketing, Internet and Business systems. For more helpful tips, visit www.39lessons.com
| | Understanding Key E-Business TermsWritten by David Bell
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CTR - Click Through Ratio: Used primarily in affiliate programs and advertising, this is ratio between total impressions of a banner or link and number of times a site visitor actually clicks on (or executes), banner or link. For example, if a banner/link had 10,000 impressions in a month, but advertiser's banner/link was only actually clicked 2,000 times during that same period, CTR would be 20%. CPC - Cost Per Click: This represents amount of money (or other consideration), an advertiser would pay to site owner each time their banner or link was clicked by a site visitor. CPI - Cost Per Impression: This represents amount of money (or other consideration), an advertiser would pay to site owner each time their banner or link was viewed by a site visitor. CPM - Cost Per Thousand: This is amount an advertiser would pay a site owner for every thousand units. I'm using term UNITS to represent whatever site owner and advertiser agreed to base payments on - per click, per impression, per subscriber (in e-zine advertising), etc. For example, if you were being paid $.20 cents for each click through, and in a month your site generated 10,000 click throughs for a specific advertiser, you would be paid $2,000. There are many more terms you should become familiar with, but these are most commonly used terms with regard to web site traffic, affiliate programs, and web site and/or e-zine advertising. 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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