Making your Websites More CompellingWritten by Andrea J. Lee
The Internet is a remarkable publishing medium. With just a little effort, you can make your web pages visually irresistible by playing with color, shapes and text. Whether your websites are already launched or you're ready to create your first few, use 3 simple steps below to kick things up a notch and make your sites professional and appealing.Step 1: Grab People's Attention with a Photo or Graphic. Without a logo or visual image to represent central offering on your web page, you are asking potential clients to immediately take a big leap and dive into your text. Why risk possibility of them not reading your important message? People browsing web are notoriously impatient. Capture their attention with a photo/graphic before they click off your site. Choose perfect image from Photodisc, ClipArt or Corbis for as little as $9 to $90 per image. Human beings are visual creatures. Consider your favorite magazine for a moment. Would it still be your favorite if it used only text on its cover this month? Step 2: Boost credibility of your service or product by using a professional color scheme. Using image you selected in step one, it's easy to go next step and pull together a professional looking color scheme. ColorSchemer is a small, inexpensive software (US$25) that helps you choose a color scheme that's eye-catching and unexpected, even if you're color-challenged. When picking colors, don't be afraid to let your personality show through. Check out http://www.colorschemer.com/. Step 3: Use graphical "signposts" throughout your material to help readers absorb your message. As you browse web, start making mental notes about sites you enjoy visiting. I'm willing to bet it's ones that break up text with colored bullets, numbers and other signposts that mentally engage you most. I'll even go so far as to say that a website that does not use graphical signposts shows a disregard for needs of reader, intentionally or not.
| | Understanding Key E-Business TermsWritten by David Bell
Whether you're operating your own online business, wanting to start one, running affiliate programs, or wanting to advertise in e-zines - or sell advertising in your own e-zine or on your web site, it's important to know and understand relevant terms used in e-business today. Hits: You see this term everywhere, and often, it is misunderstood and misused. Each hit to a web site doesn't necessarily represent one visitor. Generally, hits refer to not only web page itself, but all files requested, including all graphics. Therefore, if a page has 25 graphics, each visitor to that page represents 26 hits - one hit for page and 25 for graphics. As you can see, hits can be very misleading when representing web site traffic. Page View - Also known as Impressions: As term indicates, this refers to number of times each page on your site is viewed by a visitor. If your site has 20 pages, and a visitor goes to all pages, that visitor generated 20 page views. Keep in mind, every time that same visitor returns to your site, they will again generate more page views, regardless of time between visits. Please note that some affiliate programs use term page views or impressions synonymously with unique visitors. Unique Visitors: This, by far, is best and most reliable measure of traffic. A unique visitor is one visitor to a web site, regardless of how many pages he or she visits or how many pages or files/graphics site contains. Unique visitors are counted only once for a specific period of time - depending upon how site statistics are configured. Generally, a visitor is only counted once in a thirty day period, no matter how many times they may have returned during that time. Keep in mind, this time period varies wildly in industry, so when talking about unique visitors, make sure you know how long it takes for a visitor to be counted again.
|
