How to Avoid Costly Mistakes When Building Websites

By David Council

Mistakes to avoid are skipping little details. Like having very little content that is of value. Improper page construction, lack of title, page description and keywords will make your site invisible to the search engines. Flashing banners and the overuse of advertising are a big killer. You spend countless hours building a website. Then you spend money on advertising and get visitors. Then poof they’re gone.

People are looking for information. Consider this when creating a website. Search Engines are also looking for information. Search engines are the middlemen between us and the solutions that we are looking for. That is why search engines display the best and most relevant information available. If Google displayed results that were irrelevant, incomplete or had no value, we would seek out information elsewhere. Soon Google would lose traffic, advertisers and revenue. This would not be good for Google.

So, how can we ensure that the things we are doing are going in the right direction? First and foremost keep in mind that while the reasons people fail are endless, usually failure starts with the lack of a good plan to succeed. Lack of planning and improper education are common mistakes made by wanna be webmasters.

Understanding the CTPM process (Content, Traffic, Pre-sell and Monetize) of building websites is the first step in learning the Mistakes to Avoid. Once you have CTPM down, you need to learn about website construction, links, meta tags and keywords. Content comes first and is something that can be difficult in the beginning. I use to think sales and writing are not for me. I had never really tried to write, until it was standing between me and my goals.

It's amazing how we can go through life thinking we have no skills as a salesperson or a writer. We do it all the time! Think about it, you are having a conversation with your friend about cars. You offer your opinion that SUV's are nice, but how often do you need 4WD or AWD. You can get a crossover that is similar in almost every aspect to a SUV, but you get better gas mileage. Let’s say that your position was reversed and you feel that the security of 4WD or AWD is more important than the gas mileage. Regardless of your position you are selling your opinion or experience to your friend. Even when you suggest that he or she should not drive drunk, you are selling.

Try to get your kids or your parents to see it your way. You are selling! Pick a restaurant you like with your spouse. You are selling! How about a job interview, your politics, hobbies or passions. It doesn't matter, you are a salesperson, unless you have no opinion or don't care about anything. As far as writing, you might have a lot to say until you get in front of a keyboard. Just dive in and start typing. Eventually you will find your groove. Think about the key points and key words that you want to cover. Once you start it's like thinking on paper and the best part is the back space button... lol.

In conclusion, build content that is of value to your visitors. Take the time to understand what the search engines are looking for. Learn all the little details that go into building a website that get found by the search engines. Then you are ready for traffic.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com
(my own article directory)

Affiliate Programs Council is a resource for helping people succeed online. We invite you to visit us at Affiliate Programs Council. To your success, Dave Council

Turn Your Website Into A Web Presence

If you see your website as an extension of your business, simply online, then you're on the right track. Otherwise, you are probably throwing money away each month to host a website which only drains your financial resources.

Many companies in early 2000 rushed to develop an online presence. Basically, companies reproduced their printed brochure with content and placed it in an online format. For most companies, their brochures and direct mailers was the number one marketing tool used to solicit new business and maintain current relationships, so it made sense to create their online presence out of this material. Webmasters and agencies across the country launched websites for their respective companies and clients and waited to see the results ... many are still waiting to see them.

Most companies launched an official website, but didn't create an official web presence. A website contains information about your company. It has information that may or may not be current and is somewhat stagnate related to content. You and your close associates know about your website, no one else does. A web presence is a living entity, a marketing tool, which interacts with your potential and current clients 24/7, 365.

What turns a website into a web presence?

Effective Search Engine Optimization
Potential clients can't find your website unless you tell them. The best way to get the message out that you exist and can fulfill their need for a particular product or service is to get ranked on the search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Ranking on the major (and minor) search engines is strategic process which can take anywhere from 12 weeks to eight months. There are a lot of factors involved. If anyone tries to tell you they can get your site ranked at the top of Google in six weeks, it's a scam.

Search Engine Marketing
Take your product or service directly to the top of the search engines, in the form of sponsored links. This is by far the easiest way to rank high on the search engines, but there is a "cost per click" for each potential customer. Google, Yahoo, MSN and many other search engines offer a paid listing on their engines. Although it is easy to sign-up for the paid listings, there is a strategy behind the development of the actual text or image ad, how much to pay for each click and which keywords and key phrases to use. You also need to have a marketing budget in mind.

Now that your audience knows you exist and where to find you, you can begin utilizing the full potential of your website.

Add Ecommerce
Now that you have reached a new market; sell them your product or service. Selling online has not only become commonplace, but quite inexpensive. If you take credit cards at your physical location, you can easily accept them online through your website.

Collect Information
Offer your audience a free report or some other small gift in return for their email address and contact information. This data will come in handy when you want to reach a large audience with an announcement about a new product or service available at your website.

Get Feedback
Want to know what your audience thinks about your product or service? Collect the information online. This data can be valuable in several ways. Number one, you can use this information to contact potential customers at a later date. Number two, you can use this to create a testimonials section for your website. Potential clients always want to know what other customers thought about your product or service and will use this information in their decision process.

Add Interactive Elements: Flash Video
Create an experience for your customers by providing an introduction to your company or demonstrate a product or service.

Update your Content
If your content doesn't change on a routine basis, you won't receive return visits to your website. Search engines also keep an eye on content and rank sites accordingly.

Use a Reliable Host
Don't waste money on "fly-by-night" hosting companies. Most cheap hosting companies who offer 99% uptime with their hosting package know you don't check and you wouldn't know if your website was down. Use a company that provides uptime reports or a company that you can trust to monitor your site. If your audience can't find your site because it is down, you have wasted marketing dollars.

The Next Step
There are literally hundreds of ways you can interact with your customers online and the few above should help you get other ideas rolling your way. The next logical step is to review your own website. Is it providing a source of revenue, or is your site simply a bill you pay every month? If the latter is true, you may want to rethink your current online marketing strategy.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com
(my own article directory)

Click on the links provided for more information on website design, search engine optimization and website development.

Ways To Turn Your Internet Based Home Business Into A Profitable One

By Cynthia Minnaar

Due to the fact that many home internet based businesses do not have a plan in place to generate targeted traffic and convert those website visitors into paying customers is the reason they are not profitable.

To become more profitable with your home internet business here are five things that you can do.

1. Many Internet marketers make the mistake of focusing on features and not benefits, so create a marketing plan that concentrates on the benefits your potential customers will receive.

Benefits are what your product does specifically for your prospective customer, whereas features are what your product has. Put yourself in your customer's shoes when you plan your online advertising and focus on benefits which will turn a website visitor into a buying frame of mind.

2. Go the extra mile and set up a web page to pre-sell your prospect on what the product offers before you ask them to buy, instead of doing what most internet marketers do which is spend a lot of time selling when a visitor arrives on their site.

A website visitor customer needs information to put them into a buying mood, hence the reason you see so many pre-sell and review web pages written about affiliate products today. You can use the same strategy to sell your own products more online whether you are an affiliate marketer or not.

3. Be sure that the products you are offering are currently in demand. There are certain markets that people will always spend money in and you need to be offering these products to ensure long term success.

An example is Golfers, who are always trying to improve their game and will spend a lot of money doing so. Others that sell well online daily are diet and weight loss products. Information products that solve a problem are a potential product in demand.

Keep your eyes peeled and look around you to see what is in demand. Check the bookstores for the best selling books and have a look at what is being advertised on the TV.

You can find out what people are searching for with the top search engine by using Google Trends. You need to sell more online by offering products that are currently in demand in order to become more profitable with your home based internet business.

4. By offering multiple ways for your customer to pay will increase your profitability. Be sure to offer PayPal as this is a fast way to process payments and they accept major credit cards too. It is a good idea to offer a second payment processor to cater for those who are unable to use PayPal. You can also allow people to pay you by check, bank wire or COD if your product lends itself to this type of payment processing. In order to sell more online you need to make it easy for people to do business with you.

5. You home internet based business will become more profitable when you start advertising your products in multiple ways. You need a broad advertising campaign to attract targeted traffic otherwise you will never increase your profit.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com
(my own article directory)

Cynthia Minnaar runs her own Internet Based Home Business full-time from home. She invites you to subscribe to her free Newsletter and receive free internet income training.

How to Sell a Website

By Bradly

How much is your site worth? Your site is worth as much as someone is willing to give you for it. Simple answer really. I know, that doesn’t help when you go out advertising a site for sale and everyone is asking how much you want for it and you don’t know what to say. You don’t want to undercut yourself especially after years of hard work, but then again, you are selling a website - virtual property - it just seems a little bit strange doesn’t it.

Your site is worth how much someone is willing to give you…

In my case my website operated in an industry and had a target market that would be hard to extract much more revenue beyond what I already was getting from advertising. Yes it certainly was possible, but it would take a new income stream to make significant gains. My website operated in a small niche that would not present me with a lot of buyers - but you won’t really know demand until you try and sell, of course.

I had a special personal consideration to think of as well. I didn’t want my site to go to just anybody, it had to go to someone that would look after it and keep the dream alive. I didn’t want some overseas buyer to absorb the site into their business and lose the great community that I had. The new owners had to share the passion I had when I first started and hopefully take the site to new heights.

(In the end though I would have taken anything if I exhausted all options to find good owners - I wanted to walk away with something for my hard work even if it meant the site would die a slow death under new management. Yes this might sound heartless, but I’m being honest and I didn’t really believe I would be forced to sell to a potentially bad owner.)

Preparing To Sell

The more information you can provide to potential buyers the better. Raw statistics are especially important to most buyers and if they don’t ask you for certain numbers then they don’t know what they are doing and are probably not really interested. You should prepare at least these figures:

Your website traffic statistics including unique visitors (averages and totals), pageviews (averages and totals), growth rates over time, which countries they are from, how much traffic comes from search engines and direct bookmarks, which keywords your site is popular for and the PageRank of your site. I made available direct access to my log files with a statistics package like Awstats or Webalizer so serious buyers could get a good grasp on my site’s performance.

You need a good sales spiel email letter introducing your website and you, your site’s history, why you want to sell your site, what your site offers to the new owner (current financial and future potential) and any other important factors. Don’t give away your asking price up front but certainly make note of the important factors, such as traffic figures and if your site is profitable.

Making The Sale

Eventually you should find someone interested in your site and the negotiation will begin. As with any negotiation the mindset and “state of urgency” of the buyer and seller play key roles in determining who has the upper hand. If the buyer is not desperate or the seller is then the power can rest in the buyers hands and she can dictate the terms and price. Of course it can be the other way around with the buyer very eager and the seller not so desperate, or any combination. Each case is different but as a seller remember to stick to your guns and don’t sell unless you are happy with the terms. No regrets.

When finalising the details of the sale I suggest you keep in mind these points:

1. How and when will the money be transferred? I suggest an upfront partial payment (we did 50%) and a final payment once the transfer has been made. Are you going to use cheque/check? Direct bank wire? Cash in hand?

2. Write up some form of formal contract with dates and agreed upon price and have all parties sign it. Of course if you are completing a big bucks deal then get yourself a lawyer to make sure you stay on top of the legal concerns.

3. Define how long you will provide support for. I chose to make myself available for a long time and even today I still help out occasionally. You might want to play it safe and document the mandatory period you must provide support.

4. Stay on top of all the technical little things. Web business is a complicated task and there are a lot of web tools that you might be using and have even forgot about. Don’t forget web hosting, domain names, autoresponders, mailing lists, software, subscriptions, paid directory listings and any of the host elements that might be used by your web business that you need to transfer to the new owners.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com
(my own article directory)

Sell your website at http://www.zidbiz.com MarketPlace Forum. Buy and sell Websites, Domains, Software, Services and much more....

How To Get Traffic Through Web Video

By Video Learning

There is one common goal among all webmasters and that is to increase their page views and traffic. However, the main question is, how can you do this? With literally thousands of how-to books circling the web, and bookstores, explaining that they have the "secret" to increase traffic; it is very difficult for a webmaster to choose the correct way to gain traffic.

While some of these books actually have great tips and information on gaining visitors to your site, there is one method that has proven itself in the last couple of years as being one of the best ways to attract loyal viewers, and potential customers. This is done through the medium of web video, and it is an extremely powerful method to creating a high-profile website that is visited by thousands of individuals every day.

Perhaps one of the biggest reasons why so many webmasters are using web video as a mean to drive traffic is because it is a great, and free, way to interact with potential visitors, as well as providing them with pivotal information that is fun to watch.

Web video is an amazingly powerful way to show your viewers information, and inform them of your various websites and products. There are several keys that you must follow when making a web video for website promotion. When you follow these tips, you will be able to have an extremely successful web video campaign, and you will reap the benefits of this.

The most important key to using web video for website promotion, is to make videos that are interesting, entertaining and above all else, informative. Individuals will find your videos based on what they are about. If you are selling a how-to book on fixing home appliances, the best way to reach your audience is to make short videos on how to fix various problems within your home.

An example of this would be to make a web video explaining the steps to fixing a leaky faucet. This not only will give your viewers a chance to see how informative your information is, but you will also be helping them out as well.

More than likely, when you provide a web video that answers a question, the viewers will come to your site to find other answers to their various questions. This is a great way to build loyalty with the potential customer, as well as giving them an actual reason to purchase your product.

After you have compiled several videos on your topic, you will then need to post these videos online in order for them to be seen. Yet, the biggest question is, where should you post your web videos?

There are literally hundreds of various web video sites that allow you to put your own video on their server. However, the key is finding the correct site to place your video on. It's no question that YouTube is the most popular video site on the Internet. And by placing your video, along with proper keywords, on YouTube you will soon be experiencing a flow of constant traffic to your site.

Although, if you do not want to go through and post your videos on all of the various websites by hand, you can use video submission services to do this for you. Perhaps the best out of all these systems is Traffic Geyser. This system will submit your video to all of the major video hosting websites, thus growing your traffic immensely.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com
(my own article directory)

for more info visit www.howtovideolearning.com