Presignify

I’ve been asked, “How do I design a successful Web site?”

I often respond, “Do you know the fastest way to ruin a new Web
site design?” As you might suspect, the answer is, “Lack of
proper planning beforehand.” Let’s put it another way. In
programming, there’s an old axiom, which states: “The sooner you
start your coding the longer it takes to finish.”

Planning out your Web site before you build it is essential. To
borrow a technique from the film industry, I recommend that you
create a storyboard, which is a type of a flow chart of your new
Web site design. You don’t have to be an accomplished artist to
draw out your idea, but it’s essential to create it on paper
first.

On each piece of paper, the goal is to have room for an image at
the top, plus space underneath for writing down information. As
you might suspect, the first page to start with is your home (or
welcome) page, which will typically have the most information as
it will contain the page the people visit before they enter your
site and as people go through your site, the will encounter more
information (in tiers) as they go down.

Typically, the home page links to 5-15 pages below that, which
we could refer to as Tier 2. Each of those pages links to
another 5-15 pages, which you could call Tier 3. If you use all
of these pages, you’ll wind up with an extensive Web site
design, of at least 226 pages (including the home page).

It’s during this process that all sorts of problems will crop
up. But it’s much easier to solve them on paper than in the
middle of coding rather than when you are finished.. If you
don’t, you might run into a major problem along the way that
would require a “back to the drawing board” complete site
re-design.

Working things out on paper will give you a much better idea of
how things will work and how to fix problems. And, if you have
knowledgeable friends, get a second opinion.

Once you’ve completed the on-paper process, and you or your web
designer is satisfied with the results, you’re ready to
translate it into code. Unless you or your programmer is a pro,
I would recommend using a “template”. These are ready-made Web
site design formats. You can choose from several templates by
typing “template source” in most search engines. Many of them
are free.

Commonly Asked Questions Q: For a Web site, do I have to employ
a pro, or can I call the guidance counselor at my local high
school and ask for the names of some computer whiz kids that I
could call to help me out (for a fee)?

A: It really depends on what you want to do. If all you want is
1-2 pages , you can learn how to build the Web site yourself. If
it’s an intensive site with many pages, I’d recommend student or
a pro (if you have the budget).

Q: I see a lot of photo-oriented web sites that have a black
background. Is this the best color to use?

A: Not necessarily. It’s a matter of opinion and personal taste.
White can work just as well. I don’t recommend the use of other
colors as they can compete with your images.

Q: Is “Flash” or audio acceptable?

A: If you absolutely need Flash to demonstrate an animation,
then by all means use it. If it’s for a fancy trick, I recommend
leaving it out. It’s similar with sound. Unless it adds to your
site, don’t use it. And if you do use sound, give users an
option to turn it off. If you don’t, you’re likely to lose
visitors.

Comments Off

How would you like to have this as your Internet Address?
www.BillysBargainBarn.ws

The domain industry is exploding! Industry experts predict that
over 500 Million domains will be active annually within the next
ten years.

Before you can start up a business - any business - customers
need to be able to find you. On the Internet, your address is
your domain name; the part of an Internet address that comes
after the www. With the unparalleled growth of the Internet, dot
com domain names continue to sell like hotcakes. Currently,
there are more than 20 million dot com domains, and over 34
million total domains registered worldwide. Industry experts
forecast that more than 500 million domains will be registered
in the next ten years. In fact, reliable sources from companies
like Intel are predicting that every personal computer in the
future will have its own domain name.

Why Do You Want A Web Site? You can establish a professional,
trusted image by having a Web site. An online presence can
perform many functions to help support your business, and all of
them should incorporate the following three top-level goals:

Enhanced Customer Service. The Web offers unprecedented ways to
improve service to your customers. You can give buyers the
ability to check the status of their orders or accounts, and to
handle transactions electronically anytime. Customer loyalty can
be enhanced through interactive discussions and surveys designed
to assess public reactions and gather honest feedback about
products and services. FAQs and e-mail can reduce the volume,
and therefore the expense, of toll-free calls. If you sell
products online, you can use e-mail to confirm orders.

Reduced Sales and Marketing Costs. Online operating manuals and
troubleshooting guides can reduce telephone time and streamline
operating efficiency. You can provide information on special
offers without incurring the cost of brochures, direct mail,
long-distance charges, travel or other business expenses. You
can stretch your marketing dollars by including your Web address
on print materials targeting potential customers. If your site
is designed to process orders, you can make sales
around-the-clock, seven days a week, regardless of staffing
levels and without the extra costs of toll-free telephone lines,
regional sales offices or distribution centers.

Opening New Markets. A Web site allows you to explore new ways
to sell your products. Wholesalers can open a retail channel
(provided their own retailers don’t object), and local
businesses can tap into national and international markets that
were previously out of reach.

Global Domains International, Inc. is the worldwide domain name
registry for all .ws (Dot WS) domain names. Our product is an
incredible $10 per month package that includes your own domain
name, hosting accounts, and up to ten email accounts, plus an
easy-to-use online web site builder that will allow you to get a
professional looking web site on the web as quickly as possible.
And the best thing is, you can try out everything we have to
offer, starting today, for FREE.click here www.moneyguide.ws

Comments Off

In an ever-changing world it is important to have some
stability. To this end you should look into registering your
domain name because:

* Your domain name becomes a point of association for you.
Clients remember your site and services by the domain name.

* Even if you change your web host the domain name would go with
you and clients will be re-directed to your web site.

* Since brand recall is the basis to good marketing a permanent
domain name will become the “brand” that represents your company.

Registering a domain is cheap. It only costs between US$ 1 and
US$ 3 per month. Many registrars also offer free parking for the
domain names. The registration can be done by the web host or
you as an individual.

* Make a list of domain names you are using in your business and
are likely to use.

* Write down the DNS IP addresses and the names of the primary
and secondary servers.

* Choose a method of payment. Using a credit card is highly
recommended as the registration is immediate.

* Select a registrar from the many available like, Yahoo,
GoDaddy.com, Dotster.com, or Register.com. Read the terms and
conditions carefully and do not hesitate to ask any relevant
questions.

You must:

* Consider seriously the costs of re-registering the domains
owned by you.

* Whether you will be in a position to sell any of the domains.

* If you should purchase other permutations of your domain to
prevent cyber squatting. Think about dot.net; dot.biz; dot.co
and so on.

* InterNic at http://www.internic.net/ provides information on
Internet domain name registration services. It has an accredited
registrar directory as well as an FAQ section.

* Network Solutions at
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jhtml has a WHOIS
database where one can find out which domains are registered and
by whom along with website data. The search spans multiple
registrar databases and throws up registration information on
millions of domain names with different extensions.

* Yahoo Small Business Directory at
http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Co
mmunications_and_Networking/Internet_and_World_Wide_Web/Domain_Na
me_Registration/ is a comprehensive directory of 334 domain
registration sites along with a brief description.

Valuable Insights:

* Make a list of domain names as well as extensions that you
want to register. Ask yourself why you need these domains and
what you plan doing with them. Of all the extensions dot.com is
the most popular.

* It is not advisable to register the domain names with the web
host . If you decide to use a new host you will save yourself
immense trouble of moving the domain name as well. Always
register with reputable and accredited companies.

* Choose the keywords carefully. Search engines favor keyword
rich domain names. This will help in the marketing of the site.

* Coin a short domain name. Short names are remembered and are
know to have better recall in memories of clients and casual
browsers.

* Ensure that the domain name has topical relevance. It must
convey a definite meaning and represent your business.

* Keep in mind applicable laws while choosing a domain name. Pay
special attention to trademark and copyright laws.

Register your domain and gain peace of mind. It is inexpensive
and protects your website and intellectual property.

Comments Off

Everyday we hear that another company goes out of business.

When and why does a dot-com become a dot-bomb?

After checking few dozen defunct companies, I think the main reasons for dot-coms failure are:

• Poor business plan. In the last years, a lot of investment capital was spent on poorly planned companies that clearly couldn’t reach profitability.

• Poor company promotion. This applies both offline and online. Two newspaper ads and word of mouth are not enough.

• Poor financial management. Fancy offices, free food, does it ring a bell?

• Poor Human Resources management. With lots of cash in their hands, many start-up companies hired too many people or, even worse, hired unqualified staff. The hiring of friends and relatives often returned no value on investments.

• Errors in the company’s Web site. Sometimes hundreds of errors could be found in one Web page. Yes, those Web site builders should go back to school- if they ever went to school for HTML at all.

I’ll focus my comments on the last reason:

How Errors in the Web Site Can Affect the Company’s Health

It’s clear that you can make money on the Web if you have customers. You have customers if you have viewers- “traffic” in the geek’s language. And you get traffic if your site is easy to find — near the top — in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). That’s not so easy to achieve.

First of all your site has to be indexed by the search tools: Search Engines and Web Directories.

Although some Search Engines will eventually find your site by themselves, most of the time this only happens if somebody links to your site. In the case of a NEW site, having existing links is almost impossible. Rather than wait for links to be made, start a submission campaign.

A big no-no is submitting a Web site using submission software. Using software of this type may be quick and easy, but some Web Directories and Search Engines do NOT accept automated submissions.

It’s true that manual submission is a time consuming process — you’ll have to read AND follow each Search Engines’ submission guidelines, to effectively perform the submission - but it’s a necessary step.

Most of the defunct sites I’ve checked had only a modest presence and visibility in the Search Engines.

Let’s say that you submitted your site correctly, you waited a reasonable amount of time - usually few weeks - for the Search Engines to process your submission, but your site does not appear near the top in the Search Engine Results Pages.

You’re wondering why, right? Well, one or more of the following reasons might apply:

1) Your submission was not accepted by the Search Engines. If you used spamming techniques, such as:

• Repeating keywords in the keyword meta tag or using text in the same color as the background, some Search Engines might refuse to index your site.

• Page redirection — including cloaking — or building artificial links farms can sometimes be seen as spam by some Search Engines. These links farms involve building Web pages for the sole purpose of creating links to the targeted site. For more about spam please read my article:

“Search Engine Spamming Sucks!” [ http://www.web-design-in-new-york.com/articles.html ]

Some Search Engines also have difficulty in indexing pages that use frames or Flash.

2) Your submission was accepted, but your site is not listed in the Top 10-30. Because very few people check pages after the first 30 results, you want to be in the Top 10-30. There are many reasons why a site is not listed high.

The most common reasons are:

• The lack of your main keywords in the content of the page, in the Title tag and in the Description and Keyword meta tags. Ultimately it all depends of the Search Engines’ algorithm- the criteria used by the Search Engines to rank pages.

• HTML errors. Examples include unclosed tags, unquoted attributes, improperly nested tags, missing the ALT attribute on images. Any of these will affect your site’s accessibility, reducing your potential client pool.

A Web site with HTML errors can look fine in Explorer, strange in Netscape or Opera and totally unreadable in a text browser. Although Explorer has the largest market share, an important percentage of net surfers use other browsers. Don’t forget the more than 50 million people in the USA with disabilities. Many of the latter use text/voice browsers.

Other Types of Errors in Web Sites

Proper HTML coding is very important but the structure and the layout of the pages are equally important. I saw sites without ANY way to contact the company: no email address, no “contact page”. I saw sites so crowded that it was almost impossible to find my way around. I saw sites with ugly color schemes. I saw a site so “heavy” that it took nearly three minutes to download the Home Page.

According to statistics, users have very limited patience when it comes to loading a page. If after eight seconds they cannot see the page, they leave. And we all know what that means or the success of a Web site.

I not only saw all those errors in sites that are now gone but I also found them in sites that are still alive, including, incredibly, some Fortune 500 companies’ Web sites.

So Do We Dot-Com or Not?

The answer is a resounding YES! But with one condition, learn from your predecessors.

How can a dot-com become profitable? I don’t pretend to know ALL the answers. If I did, I would be millionaire by now.

Advice for Forming and Managing Your Company:

• Develop a sound business plan, with clear, credible ways to get to profitability. Venture capitalists are much more cautious than a few years ago. They invest less and are more selective in this risky business. They want value returned for their money. After all, statistics show that 9 out of 10 startups fail.

• Handle your money wisely. Enough said.

• Hire only the people you REALLY need and be sure ALL of them are professionals.

Advice Regarding the Web Site that Supports Your Company:

• Do the right thing when you prepare the Web site. Hire reputable professionals to build and promote your cyber adventure. If you already have a Web site, remember that a Web site can easily be redesigned and properly resubmitted to search tools.

• Have your site designed according to W3C Recommendations - the Official HTML coding rules. Yes, this takes time and it’s much easier to use an HTML editor, but the results are much better when properly coded by hand. Watch your site’s accessibility and usability. Don’t forget to test and validate the code. Talking about testing, do yourself a favor: check the spelling on your pages.

• Do not use spamming techniques. You might not be caught today, but one day the Search Engines OR your competitors will find you. Search Engines sometimes will use this reason to ban your site FOR LIFE.

For more about spam please read my article:

“Search Engine Spamming Sucks!” [ http://www.web-design-in-new-york.com/articles.html ]

• Avoid gizmos: JavaScripts, Flash or frames. Bells and whistles will NEVER help your page’ ranking. In fact, it will hurt your site’s indexing or ranking in the Search Engines and will annoy most of your viewers. So, just don’t do it!

• Have interesting content in your pages, content that grabs your viewer’s attention. No matter how beautiful your site is, no matter how much professional promotion you made, if the site doesn’t grab viewer’s interest, he will leave - you guessed it — to your competitors’ sites.

Also, use the Title tag, the Keyword and Description meta tags in your HTML coding to list targeted keywords from the contents of your pages. This helps the Search Engines rank your site higher.

• Promote the site thoroughly. Submit the site properly to Search Engines and Web Directories and pay special attention to the link popularity issue- contact Webmasters of related sites to ask them to include a link to your site. Yes, it takes time, but it’s worth it.

So, let’s see: do we dot-com or not? You bet we do! There are tremendous opportunities on the Internet. Find your niche, follow the rules, work hard and you’ll make it.

It will not be easy but if you believe in your dream and set realistic expectations, you’ll be successful.

Good luck!

About The Author

Daniel Bazac is the Web Marketer for Web Design in New York, ( http://www.web-design-in-new-york.com ), a site design, Search Engine Optimization and promotion company. He’s been online from 1995 and he’s also a seasoned Internet Information Researcher. He can be reached at mailto:danielbazac@hotmail.com

Comments Off

Starting a home-based Internet business may not be as difficult
as building a conventional start-up business that needs a
physical location and an innovative product to sell. Chances
are, you are deciding to build a home-based Internet business
for the precise reason of low-cost and ease of start-up.

While you may want to start an Internet business for its low
cost, dont expect that youd be getting by for free. Expect a
degree of expenditure, but dont be afraid to gain huge profit
in the same way.

What you first need to do is to find a niche or a target market
that you aim to service or sell to in your website. Identifying
a target market firstbased on standards you see appropriate,
like profitability, Internet access of the target market, and
even their spending capacitieswill help you decide what product
or service to sell online.

This product or service you offer may be something of your own
(as it is with many visionary entrepreneurs), or may be a
product or service you found online. Various websites and groups
offer various products that you may sell with master resale
benefits. Master resale benefits are products that you may opt
to sell and gain complete profit from.

The product or service you decide to offer on your website, of
course, needs a platform through which it will reach its
audience. The online interface or platform you need must be of
great utility but also be visually appealing. This may be
achieved with a well executed website. Your website will be of
great utility if it provides apt information about your product
or service, and how to avail of it, and if its structure and
organization facilitates the users exploration of all the
features of the site. Moreover, it has to be visually appealing
in order to engage the attention of your visitors. This sort of
visual appeal that will result to visual recall in your visitors
will help you gain the sort of Internet traffic you need.

Why is Internet traffic important to you? Internet traffic is
the inflow and outflow of visitors in your website. Your product
and website may both be amazing and revolutionary, however, if
no one knows you exist in the web, no one or only a handful will
ever know about it. This, unfortunately, will result to the
death of your business. While the visual recall may bring you
Internet traffic through person-to-person recommendation, this
may not be enough to perpetuate a profitable Internet venture.

This is perhaps where you would have to spend a greater amount
of money. A good way to increase traffic to your website is to
advertise in search engines that you pay for every person that
clicks on the promotion you put up. Purchasing the services of
these pay-per-click search engines like Google will help make
sure that you get greater traffic and exposure online. Another
way to increase traffic is by plugging your Internet business in
various web logs (or blogs, as they are popularly known).
Instead of submitting your website address and information to
various search engines so that youd appear in their search
queries, you may find that you are bound to appear in the higher
yields of these search queries if you are instead found by the
search engine itself via your plug in a blog.

When you create a website, it may also be wise and strategic to
have placed a pop-up window that is not blocked by pop-up
blocker programs. These pop-up windows may contain a direct link
to your website, or may be newsletter sign-up portals through
which your potential customer may sign-up to receive updates on
your website and new products you are selling.

Dont be afraid to advertise any other websites you may have in
your newsletter sign-up faade. You may even make signing up
more attractive by making it explicitly known to your viewer
that the best deals, discounts, and freebies are only accessible
by signing up to the newsletter.

Once you already have a considerable following online, you may
even drop the pay-per-click services or any other sort of
advertising platform you originally paid for.

To make a successful Internet business, the best way to go is to
invest some money, some time, and have some willingness to take
some risks. Some of the most successful online entrepreneurs
share many of their secrets to success online, so dont be
afraid to read up on their tips as well. Moreover, in whatever
excess time you have, dont be afraid to submit your website to
other sites that can offer you advertising, or submit critiques
of other websites where you may also put up a link to bring
people to your website. Nothing a little extra effort in that
Internet business can do to make your business much better!

Comments Off