Would You Buy There?

Written by Jason D. Huhtala


So you have a product that you want to sell onrepparttar Internet. What isrepparttar 132824 first thing you think about? Some may be thinking, "I need to set up a link directory, or maybe fork over some cash to overture and get some traffic in here." Others may be thinking, "I need a lot of great content to keep those precious visitors here." "Catchy url, that's what I need," may be on some people's minds. But even if you do all those things; if you have bad site design, you're going to have a hard time selling.

Take a moment and think aboutrepparttar 132825 hundreds or maybe thousands of sites that you've been to. Now think about how many of them that you have actually bought something from compared to how many were selling something. I think it would be safe for me to say, you didn't buy from Charlie's Bargain Basement that is fashionably designed in orange with puke green frames? Did you chance your hard earned money with Guido's Lava Lamps withrepparttar 132826 mysql errors, just so you could get a couple dollars off? What about Betty's Fine Fishing Worms? It clearly states atrepparttar 132827 bottom that it hasn't been updated since June 2000 and looks best in Netscape 4.0. Did you still buy there?

Now why didn't you?

One ofrepparttar 132828 largest problems onrepparttar 132829 Internet today is Trust. I bet you've heardrepparttar 132830 saying, "Never judge a book by it's cover", but that rule does not apply torepparttar 132831 web. Are you breaking any rules that may be driving visitors away? Let's talk about a few things.

1st rule - Colors. I've heard this one a couple times: "But this black background looks cool." Now think ofrepparttar 132832 top retailers onrepparttar 132833 Internet. What color is their background? I wonder why they are all white? The first thing you do when you go to a site is look around to see if it's even worth your time. Dark backgrounds are -10 points right offrepparttar 132834 top for me. Studies show that people click a lot more links when there is a white background. One reason is that some people have a hard time reading white on black. Personally I feel a headache come on in a hurry if I stare at a site with a dark background for too long. Others may feel claustrophobic or intimidated and next thing you know poor design has frightened those precious visitors away. Unless you're interested in selling chokers and leashes to Goth teenagers, keep your colors light.

Can Your Web Site Win The Tour De France?

Written by Ken Hablow


It's over. After three grueling weeks of racing, Lance Armstrong has won what some callrepparttar world's most difficult sporting event,repparttar 132822 Tour De France. The US newspapers gaverepparttar 132823 event a cursory notationrepparttar 132824 Monday afterrepparttar 132825 finish and showed a single photo of Lance in his yellow jersey (used to identifyrepparttar 132826 Tour leader) sporting an ear-to-ear grin. But those of us who are avid cyclists and follow bicycle racing know there is much more to winning an event like this than simply one man riding to glory after three weeks and over 2,000 miles.

The world sees only Armstrong, but behind this cycling phenomenon is an incredible team. Actually there are two teams. One isrepparttar 132827 group of cyclists that support, protect and lead Armstrong duringrepparttar 132828 actual racing. The other isrepparttar 132829 support team no one sees. This consists of allrepparttar 132830 coaches, trainers, therapists, medical staff, chefs, team managers, mechanics and evenrepparttar 132831 people who driverepparttar 132832 support vehicles.

So what does this have to do with your website? As I go through my annual TDF withdrawal, I have begun to equaterepparttar 132833 US Postal Service cycling team to a well performing Web site. Here is a relationship ofrepparttar 132834 various elements.

1) Message The message Armstrong sent to his competition this year was, "Don't even think of messing with me." It was a very strong statement. What message does your Website portray? Do you tell your site visitors right up front what it is your company does, what problems you solve and how? People will relate to real problems your company solves for clients.

2) Focus Armstrong has a team of elite cyclists whose only job is to support their team leader. Think of allrepparttar 132835 pages on your Website asrepparttar 132836 support for your message. These arerepparttar 132837 pages people will look at and read to learn about your company, your services and your products. Enforce your message, provide clear and understandable information, be consistent. Most importantly, stay focused.

3) Identity The "posties" (asrepparttar 132838 US Postal team riders are called) all wearrepparttar 132839 same blue jerseys. Each team has its own colors. Your Web site pages should all look alike. I have seen many sites with a "killer" home page, yetrepparttar 132840 rest ofrepparttar 132841 site is mundane. Often, subsequent pages seem to degrade and change in design and layout. I begin to wonder if I am still onrepparttar 132842 original site. The same logo should appear on every page and be consistent with your navigation. People should never have to wonder if they have left your site, regardless of which page they are looking at.

4) Support Just asrepparttar 132843 US Postal team has a plethora of behind-the-scenes support people, your Web site needs hidden support.

The first line is your hosting company. If your site is down due to a malfunctioning or overloaded server, it is a reflection on you. I have had hosting companies forget to upload their entire password file for shared hosting sites when bringing a new server online. Another ISP never configured Apache on a new server to display HTM pages, only HTML. A third copied files onto a new server and lost allrepparttar 132844 CGI permissions, so none ofrepparttar 132845 forms or back end programs worked.

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