You may or may not be aware that Royal Mail yesterday launched an online postage stamp service. The idea is you can open an account online pre fund it with your credit or debit card and print postage labels with bar codes at home for your packets.
PLEASE PLEASE take the time to read this, this new service is not only bad for your local post office it could be worse for you!!!!
Before you go rushing off to use this new Royal Mail service there are a few things you may want to consider, that you may not think about in the rush of excitement.
First Reactions
I would imagine the reaction of most ebayers on hearing of the new "pay your postage online service" would be "Great I don't have to queue in the post office" but let us just take a look at the pros and cons of "Do it yourself postage"
The Costs
Firstly, petty as this may sound consider this:
Who will be paying for the adhesive labels and ink to print all these trendy new labels??
That is correct YOU will, while your first reaction may be "but it's only pennies" is it? Do you know how much a4 sheets of adhesive computer printable labels are?? You already know that ink is expensive right?? And don't forget you need to print a full sheet at a time so you are not wasting labels. What if you only have 4 packets to send tomorrow. Yes you could print on normal paper, but do you really want to be trimming cutting and sellotaping and hoping your label doesn't fall off and your packet not be delivered to your customer?
Let's say the labels and ink only cost you �5 a month ( and thats being VERY conservative) well that's �60 per year MORE than you are paying now, and your costs probably already increased with the pricing by size changes.
But this doesn't matter because you don't pay the postage your buyers do! If Ebay traders are not careful the time will VERY QUICKLY arrive where the postage costs make buying a new item cheaper, or from an online store who offer free delivery. DON'T burst your own bubble people!
But At Least I Won't Have To Queue At The Post Office
Really? You have your bag of packages at home with your internet postage labels all attached at your expense. That doesn't alter the fact you STILL have to take them to the post office. The staff there are very nice people, however they WILL NOT be allowing anyone to just come in and dump a bag of mail in the corner. That is a health and safety hazard and post offices are public buildings that BY LAW have to follow health and safety practices. So you will STILL have to wait your turn in the queue to hand your bag of packages to the staff.
Sure you can try cramming them in a letter box if the items you sell are small enough, but you may find if just one other ebayer beats you to it, the box is full.
ANOTHER ISSUE
I have a friend who does a lot of selling on ebay. He purchased a set of "Digital Ebay Scales" online, certified to be accurate for the bargain price of �29.99.
He went to the post office all prepared with his estimates written on his packages, nearly all of them were wrong because the scales weren't accurate. Don't kid yourselves to buy a set of scales sensitive enough to weigh letters ACCURATELY will cost you in excess of �300.
The BIG issue
Do you use a nice local post office????? Whether or not you are aware of it, most local post offices are actually sub post offices, they are private businesses they are NOT owned by the Post Office themselves they are agents or franchises.
Like any business they have overheads, staff to pay and profits to make to stay open. If you turn up with your bag of mail sure they HAVE to take it from you but they have made no money at all from your visit, how long do you think that will last???
One thing I am almost sure you know is how many small post offices have closed down all over the country in recent years. Why did they close down? Because the post office lost out on many pensions that are now paid directly into the bank, that was a big chunk of their business. Then as you also know the government in its wisdom gave TV licensing to another company. More of the business gone. They are also trying to promote that people tax their cars online, more of the business gone. One of the few things that has helped your local post offices stay open is Ebay packets and post. Take that away and you WILL see even more offices close.
What happens when more small post offices close down because business is being taken away??? Where do you take your packages then??? To a main post office which now has even larger queues because the smaller local offices closed.
Where are most the main offices??? In town and city centres where you will be paying �3 plus parking every time you want to post your items????
If these offices go, what happens if the website is down or wont take your card???
Still think this service is a good idea and will save you time??? Well it really is up to you, like every other thing in life it really is a case of use it or lose it. Please think carefully which is more inconvenient queuing for 10 minutes in your local post office when it is busy, or trecking all the way into a town or city centre, parking up and lugging your mail to a main office to send off .
We build websites for a living and are all for online shopping and transactions, however neither us or our clients want to see the distribution network that sends our goods get closed down.
In our humble opinion this new service looks like a time saver, but in the long run it will cost your business more money and time.
Please feel free to send a link to this page to any uk merchant you may know who sells online
"About the author"
Gary McHugh is owner of www.completecarts.com a site dedicated to quality ecommerce stores.
This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_88395_16.html
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Making Money with Articles: How Much Can I Make?
How much you can make from placing articles and affiliate program links on your website differs from person to person. How much you are able to make will depend mostly on how successful your site is. This means getting good search engine rankings through SEO efforts, making your site enjoyable and informative to read through engaging content, building your site around a great niche subject, how big your site is, and how many sites you have.
Some people claim to make as much as $10,000 per month ($120,000 per year) through building and promoting niche sites, however, most people should not expect this kind of success, especially if you are very new, as that kind of success usually only comes with experience and acquired skill. A reasonable income to expect from a niche site, after you have worked for months to gain traffic and are hooked up with good affiliates, may be $500-$1,000 per month. However this is recurring income, so you will make that much monthly off of the efforts you put into that one site, it is not a one shot deal.
After you have a successful site, most choose to continue to build niche sites. The more sites that you build, the better an income you can generate. Some also choose to build very fast and very short sites over sites that are slightly longer in length. It should be noted that the larger each of your sites are, the more income you will likely generate off of them.
When starting out, it is important to remember that your first site will always be your hardest, since you are just learning the ropes of the business, and that not everyone is cut out to market and promote niche sites. It may not work out for you and you may end up losing a little bit of money, but that is a risk that everyone in this business has to take.
The important thing is that you don't give up without a good shot at it, if this is really what you want to do. Your first site may take a long time, the work may be tedious, and you may feel like throwing in the towel. However, if you give up too early, you will never know what could have been. And who knows, you may be the next great website marketer!
Article by ArticleShine.com
Visit http://www.articleshine.com/ for more articles. Webmasters can submit their articles and Visitors can browse through the quality articles.
This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_88773_16.html
Some people claim to make as much as $10,000 per month ($120,000 per year) through building and promoting niche sites, however, most people should not expect this kind of success, especially if you are very new, as that kind of success usually only comes with experience and acquired skill. A reasonable income to expect from a niche site, after you have worked for months to gain traffic and are hooked up with good affiliates, may be $500-$1,000 per month. However this is recurring income, so you will make that much monthly off of the efforts you put into that one site, it is not a one shot deal.
After you have a successful site, most choose to continue to build niche sites. The more sites that you build, the better an income you can generate. Some also choose to build very fast and very short sites over sites that are slightly longer in length. It should be noted that the larger each of your sites are, the more income you will likely generate off of them.
When starting out, it is important to remember that your first site will always be your hardest, since you are just learning the ropes of the business, and that not everyone is cut out to market and promote niche sites. It may not work out for you and you may end up losing a little bit of money, but that is a risk that everyone in this business has to take.
The important thing is that you don't give up without a good shot at it, if this is really what you want to do. Your first site may take a long time, the work may be tedious, and you may feel like throwing in the towel. However, if you give up too early, you will never know what could have been. And who knows, you may be the next great website marketer!
Article by ArticleShine.com
Visit http://www.articleshine.com/ for more articles. Webmasters can submit their articles and Visitors can browse through the quality articles.
This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_88773_16.html
Adsense Advertiser Alternatives
Many people have started using Google's AdSense program, but there are some who find it a bit too uncertain or simply not suiting their own requirements from an ad program.
But thankfully for such people, there are many alternatives to AdSense which attempt to alleviate some of its shortcomings. Here is a list of the most noteworthy ones from the lot with a description concerning each one.
AllFeeds (http://www.allfeeds.com/?action=publishers)
AllFeeds has a great pool of online advertisers to choose from. It also features many display formats that you can choose from. These include banners, buttons, XML feeds, DHTML pop-ups and so on. It also features real time reporting of your ad status. The site will mail a check every month, provided that you earn more then $25.00, while rolling over earnings for the next month if you don't. Another interesting thing about AllFeeds is that it integrates with Google AdSense, maximizing your earnings with AdSense.
MarketBanker (http://www.marketbanker.com/mb/sell.php)
MarketBanker allows you the unique possiblity to set the pricing for your site. It also allows you to allow or reject any link that appears on your site (although AdSense itself does a very good job of this as well, with URL filters) There's also a statistics section which will allow you to see how well your site is doing. The ads are small just like AdSense's and they're just as easy to set up. Also, registration for MarketBanker is free.
BidClix ( http://www.bidclix.com/PubTop.html)
BidClix is different because it has advertisers compete for clicks on your site, which in turn is meant to generate the highest possible profits for your page. It also has a very large pool of advertisers which ensure there are plenty of people to choose your site. However, it does require more polish on site contents then AdSense. As most sites, real time statistics are available and its very easy to get started with this service, but it's also very flexible.
Chitika (http://www.realcontext.com/index.php?option=RealContext:+Contextual+Targeting+Engine)
RealContext uses Artificial intelligence to retrieve the most relevant ads for your page. And there's an extra feature which makes RealContext unique as well. Keywords are selected based upon which previous selections payed off and which didn't. That means there's a constant feedback process that ensures you gain better revenue from your ads. It also supports blocking certain adds and child-safe filtering and many more options.
AdHearus (http://adhearus.com/webmaster.php)
AdHearus is a very feature-packed contextual ad provider. As with AdSense, advertisements are targeted but it doesn't stop here at all. The ads are very flexible, you can select from text-ads, banners, rectangles, pop-ups, pop-unders or skyscrapers. You can also display your own ads, through rotation, both on your site and on other affiliate sites, which makes AdHearus a hybrid with conventional advertising technologies. There's a very comprehensive on-line real time reporting feature and, as usual with such services, starting out is free and it's a breeze.
AffiliateSensor (http://www.affiliatesensor.com/)
AffiliateSensor has highly customizable ad blocks, which you can make for yourself with an easy to use on-line interface. You also get realtime reporting with clicks-by-domain, page and refferer. There's integration with Google AdSense as well, through the google_alternate_ad_url so AffiliateSensor can be used as a substitute for Google PSA's (Public Service Ads).
Kanoodle Bright Ads (http://www.kanoodle.com/about/brightads.cool)
Kanoodle's offering allows publishers to get ads related to topics or segments, and not the traditional keyword oriented ads. The site also groups publisher sites with advertisers by hand to ensure high-revenue generating ads. And speaking of revenue, the amount of money you receive is a clear 50% share of the amount of money Kanoodle recieves for an advertiser.
TargetPoint (http://publisher.targetpoint.com)
TargetPoint is oriented more towards content publishers. It offers full control over the look the ads, statistics over your site's overall performance and better revenue. It's free to register and you earn a guaranteed 60% of the total revenue. You can get payed with Paypal of Bank checks and (most times) wire transfers as well.
Clicksor (http://www.clicksor.com)
Clicksor will earn you as much as 60% from the amount of money your website produces. What you get is about the same as AdSense, there are targeted text ads, you can view the revenues from your website in real time. You can receive money via PayPal or through a check every two weeks, provided that you have earned more then $50. If you haven't made that much, your earning roll over to the next period
Article by Onlyforwebmaster.com
Visit http://www.onlyforwebmaster.com/website-marketing/ for more website marketing articles, over 100 webmaster tips, and more!
This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_88777_16.html
But thankfully for such people, there are many alternatives to AdSense which attempt to alleviate some of its shortcomings. Here is a list of the most noteworthy ones from the lot with a description concerning each one.
AllFeeds (http://www.allfeeds.com/?action=publishers)
AllFeeds has a great pool of online advertisers to choose from. It also features many display formats that you can choose from. These include banners, buttons, XML feeds, DHTML pop-ups and so on. It also features real time reporting of your ad status. The site will mail a check every month, provided that you earn more then $25.00, while rolling over earnings for the next month if you don't. Another interesting thing about AllFeeds is that it integrates with Google AdSense, maximizing your earnings with AdSense.
MarketBanker (http://www.marketbanker.com/mb/sell.php)
MarketBanker allows you the unique possiblity to set the pricing for your site. It also allows you to allow or reject any link that appears on your site (although AdSense itself does a very good job of this as well, with URL filters) There's also a statistics section which will allow you to see how well your site is doing. The ads are small just like AdSense's and they're just as easy to set up. Also, registration for MarketBanker is free.
BidClix ( http://www.bidclix.com/PubTop.html)
BidClix is different because it has advertisers compete for clicks on your site, which in turn is meant to generate the highest possible profits for your page. It also has a very large pool of advertisers which ensure there are plenty of people to choose your site. However, it does require more polish on site contents then AdSense. As most sites, real time statistics are available and its very easy to get started with this service, but it's also very flexible.
Chitika (http://www.realcontext.com/index.php?option=RealContext:+Contextual+Targeting+Engine)
RealContext uses Artificial intelligence to retrieve the most relevant ads for your page. And there's an extra feature which makes RealContext unique as well. Keywords are selected based upon which previous selections payed off and which didn't. That means there's a constant feedback process that ensures you gain better revenue from your ads. It also supports blocking certain adds and child-safe filtering and many more options.
AdHearus (http://adhearus.com/webmaster.php)
AdHearus is a very feature-packed contextual ad provider. As with AdSense, advertisements are targeted but it doesn't stop here at all. The ads are very flexible, you can select from text-ads, banners, rectangles, pop-ups, pop-unders or skyscrapers. You can also display your own ads, through rotation, both on your site and on other affiliate sites, which makes AdHearus a hybrid with conventional advertising technologies. There's a very comprehensive on-line real time reporting feature and, as usual with such services, starting out is free and it's a breeze.
AffiliateSensor (http://www.affiliatesensor.com/)
AffiliateSensor has highly customizable ad blocks, which you can make for yourself with an easy to use on-line interface. You also get realtime reporting with clicks-by-domain, page and refferer. There's integration with Google AdSense as well, through the google_alternate_ad_url so AffiliateSensor can be used as a substitute for Google PSA's (Public Service Ads).
Kanoodle Bright Ads (http://www.kanoodle.com/about/brightads.cool)
Kanoodle's offering allows publishers to get ads related to topics or segments, and not the traditional keyword oriented ads. The site also groups publisher sites with advertisers by hand to ensure high-revenue generating ads. And speaking of revenue, the amount of money you receive is a clear 50% share of the amount of money Kanoodle recieves for an advertiser.
TargetPoint (http://publisher.targetpoint.com)
TargetPoint is oriented more towards content publishers. It offers full control over the look the ads, statistics over your site's overall performance and better revenue. It's free to register and you earn a guaranteed 60% of the total revenue. You can get payed with Paypal of Bank checks and (most times) wire transfers as well.
Clicksor (http://www.clicksor.com)
Clicksor will earn you as much as 60% from the amount of money your website produces. What you get is about the same as AdSense, there are targeted text ads, you can view the revenues from your website in real time. You can receive money via PayPal or through a check every two weeks, provided that you have earned more then $50. If you haven't made that much, your earning roll over to the next period
Article by Onlyforwebmaster.com
Visit http://www.onlyforwebmaster.com/website-marketing/ for more website marketing articles, over 100 webmaster tips, and more!
This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_88777_16.html
What is an Affiliate Program?
Are you trying to find a great affiliate program? Here is how affiliate programs work. The person promoting the projects is the affiliate, and the company with the products is the merchant. The merchant (company) pays a percentage of any sales resulting from any click through (via banner or text link) to their web site from an affiliate partner's website. Many webmasters and internet gurus are doing very well with only a handful of affiliate programs. Once you find a good one, you kind of seem to get stuck on it until you are positive you are making every penny possible. Before spending a lot of time and money marketing an affiliate program, always check it out first.
Once you start making sales, you will want to keep good records of the transactions. Personally, I use an Excel spreadsheet for the daily sales, and then input everything into QuickBooks once a month. It is also a good idea to keep all emails you get regarding sales. Many programs give you an option of receiving an email every time a sale is made. This is a great way of staying on top of your sales and also provides you with a record of transactions.
You are probably wondering how to get started with Affiliate Marketing. There are tons of places to learn more about becoming an Affiliate. I have written a great program to help people get started in the business. You can find it and my affiliate program directory at my website below. You will need an arsenal of tools to be a successful affiliate, and so I recommend reading a few different eBooks or guides on the subject and comparing the tools. The small investment you make in these educational materials will well worth the money.
Many people try Affiliate Marketing for a few days, and then when they do not have a sale, they give up. It does take work, so don't expect to get rich overnight. However, if you put some time and effort into the business, you can reap great rewards. I have an excellent guide now available at the Affiliate Cash Pilot at http://www.affiliatecashpilot.com
John is a contributor to the Affiliate Cash Pilot, a guide to Affiliate Programs at http://www.affiliatecashpilot.com
This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_88980_16.html
Once you start making sales, you will want to keep good records of the transactions. Personally, I use an Excel spreadsheet for the daily sales, and then input everything into QuickBooks once a month. It is also a good idea to keep all emails you get regarding sales. Many programs give you an option of receiving an email every time a sale is made. This is a great way of staying on top of your sales and also provides you with a record of transactions.
You are probably wondering how to get started with Affiliate Marketing. There are tons of places to learn more about becoming an Affiliate. I have written a great program to help people get started in the business. You can find it and my affiliate program directory at my website below. You will need an arsenal of tools to be a successful affiliate, and so I recommend reading a few different eBooks or guides on the subject and comparing the tools. The small investment you make in these educational materials will well worth the money.
Many people try Affiliate Marketing for a few days, and then when they do not have a sale, they give up. It does take work, so don't expect to get rich overnight. However, if you put some time and effort into the business, you can reap great rewards. I have an excellent guide now available at the Affiliate Cash Pilot at http://www.affiliatecashpilot.com
John is a contributor to the Affiliate Cash Pilot, a guide to Affiliate Programs at http://www.affiliatecashpilot.com
This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_88980_16.html
Monetize your site with interstitial ads
The most common form of monetizing a website is pay per click (PPC) text ads popularized in recent years by Google's AdSense program. Another common form of advertising is using banners; banner advertising was popular in the early days of the web but has lost its effectiveness in recent years since most people have learned to ignore it. Another form of advertising is interstitial ads that usually appear in pop up windows or as full page ads in the current window in-between content pages. Pop up/under ads have lost their effectiveness since web browsers have been improved to block them. However, a full page in-between content interstitial cannot be blocked and as such it is still a viable and effective advertising method.
Interstitials are routed in methods found in traditional media advertising that interrupts the flow of content to show ads. For example, a TV program is interrupted every few minutes to show commercials. Similarly on the web, interstitial ads are shown to a visitor just before he is redirected to a requested content page. These are full page ads that show the advertiser's website in full view. The site is usually shown for a fixed amount of time, i.e., 30 seconds, and then the surfer is redirected to the requested content page. In addition, the user is given an option to skip the ad and proceed immediately to his original destination.
A publisher who uses interstitial ads is paid on a pay per click basis, i.e., whenever someone clicks on the ad. The payment model is thus similar to pay per click contextual text ads. Interstitial ads can potentially have a higher click through rate (CRT) because they are shown in a more prominent position than text ads. In addition, displaying a site's front page can usually be more appealing to a surfer than say a two sentence text ad.
The main success of PPC text ads stems from the fact that they are non-intrusive and in the case of Google's AdSense mostly relevant to a person's interests. Displaying an interstitial ad every time a visitor requests a different page on your website will be mostly annoying resulting in lost visitors and PPC revenue. As a result, networks that sell interstitial advertising make sure that each unique visitor is only shown an ad a small number of times per visit and page request.
The most effective interstitial advertising program that I have found is that offered by AdBrite. In their system ads are frequency capped at once per user per day such that they are not annoying. For my network of websites, AdBrite's CTR has been higher than Google's contextual text ads and to this day I never had a user complain about the interstitial ads being intrusive. AdBrite also makes it easy to setup the display of interstitial ads on your website requiring that you only add a few lines of JavaScript code that they supply. Finally, AdBrite allows publishers to specify keywords to better target the ads shown helping publishers to maximize their profits.
This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_89582_16.html
Interstitials are routed in methods found in traditional media advertising that interrupts the flow of content to show ads. For example, a TV program is interrupted every few minutes to show commercials. Similarly on the web, interstitial ads are shown to a visitor just before he is redirected to a requested content page. These are full page ads that show the advertiser's website in full view. The site is usually shown for a fixed amount of time, i.e., 30 seconds, and then the surfer is redirected to the requested content page. In addition, the user is given an option to skip the ad and proceed immediately to his original destination.
A publisher who uses interstitial ads is paid on a pay per click basis, i.e., whenever someone clicks on the ad. The payment model is thus similar to pay per click contextual text ads. Interstitial ads can potentially have a higher click through rate (CRT) because they are shown in a more prominent position than text ads. In addition, displaying a site's front page can usually be more appealing to a surfer than say a two sentence text ad.
The main success of PPC text ads stems from the fact that they are non-intrusive and in the case of Google's AdSense mostly relevant to a person's interests. Displaying an interstitial ad every time a visitor requests a different page on your website will be mostly annoying resulting in lost visitors and PPC revenue. As a result, networks that sell interstitial advertising make sure that each unique visitor is only shown an ad a small number of times per visit and page request.
The most effective interstitial advertising program that I have found is that offered by AdBrite. In their system ads are frequency capped at once per user per day such that they are not annoying. For my network of websites, AdBrite's CTR has been higher than Google's contextual text ads and to this day I never had a user complain about the interstitial ads being intrusive. AdBrite also makes it easy to setup the display of interstitial ads on your website requiring that you only add a few lines of JavaScript code that they supply. Finally, AdBrite allows publishers to specify keywords to better target the ads shown helping publishers to maximize their profits.
This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_89582_16.html
Adsense Dedicated forum !
Earning money with google adsense is the dream of every webmaster. Unfortunately making money with google adsense is not as easy as you might think it would be. In order to earn money it is necessary to optimize your website for adsense.
Atoogle forum helps you find the best techniques in order to make the best adsense compatible website possible ! On the forum discuss with webmasters about your various experiences with google adsense, find tutorials on how to integrate adsense
to your website in order to earn money. Find hints, strategies, optimize your site with the correct high paying keywords ! Discuss about ready made adsense templates, are they worth it ? How do you promote your site in oreder to get traffic and increase your CTR rate ? All of this can be found on atoogle.com !
Atoogle is a real interactive community that will help you in the development of your websites with google adsense. This forum is unique, there is no other forum online that is totally dedicated to google adsense.
Atoogle.com is clearly going to become a massive forum where all adsense webmasters will want to come and discuss and find useful information. Soon a must of for adsense webmasters !
http://atoogle.com
This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_90048_16.html
Atoogle forum helps you find the best techniques in order to make the best adsense compatible website possible ! On the forum discuss with webmasters about your various experiences with google adsense, find tutorials on how to integrate adsense
to your website in order to earn money. Find hints, strategies, optimize your site with the correct high paying keywords ! Discuss about ready made adsense templates, are they worth it ? How do you promote your site in oreder to get traffic and increase your CTR rate ? All of this can be found on atoogle.com !
Atoogle is a real interactive community that will help you in the development of your websites with google adsense. This forum is unique, there is no other forum online that is totally dedicated to google adsense.
Atoogle.com is clearly going to become a massive forum where all adsense webmasters will want to come and discuss and find useful information. Soon a must of for adsense webmasters !
http://atoogle.com
This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_90048_16.html
Deadly Webmaster Disease - SiteRightItis
Interesting title and maybe it made you smile, however for some webmasters this is a very real condition. Do you have it? I hope not, but you can find out by reading on. Hopefully if you are infected with this disease then this article should immunize you and ensure you a long and healthy webmaster life. (I'll send you the bill for the immunization later)
Ok let's get serious. I have spent many years helping all sorts of web businesses get off the ground from info sites to entire shopping malls, I have built them all. What is always interesting to me is to see is which sites stay around and which disappear after a few months.
Over the past few years I have noticed something very interesting. A small percentage of my clients are constantly tweaking their sites, adding this feature, adding that feature, changing the look of this page, changing the look of that page, in essence trying to create the "Perfect" site. For me this is not a bad thing as I get paid for editing and installation services. However I often tell clients they don't need this or that and try and re-focus them a little on what they SHOULD be doing. I do have a reputation of "telling it how it is" but In my defense I could not do otherwise, I believe we sometimes need to hear wat we NEED to hear not what we want to hear.
Here is what I discovered, the webmasters that spend the most time tweaking and perfecting their sites don't have anywhere near the visitors my busiest clients do. Now while wanting your site to be "perfect" may seem like a good positive thing, it can be fraught with danger. The reason for the lack of visitors to these "tweaking" sites is simple, they spend hundreds of hours worrying about cosmetics and features, and next to no time promoting their business. Some of them even blamed the layout of the site and not the lack of promotion for its poor visitor numbers and lack of profit.
Websites are no different from traditional bricks and mortar businesses. You can have the most beautiful restaurant in the country, serving the best food on a little back street somewhere, but unless people know where it is it will fail. Well the internet is FULL of tiny back streets and your business is on one of the smallest until you promote it, get busy, and move to one of the busier streets where word of mouth brings you most your trade.
I remember many years ago when I started my first site, I did at least have the common sense to realize that I knew very little about running an online business, and went and signed myself up for a few webmaster newsletters to gleam some tips and advice from those more experienced. I will never forget the very first email I ever received from one of those webmaster sites, it's subject was "KISS" which stood for "Keep It Simple Stupid" Something I have never forgotten.
Sure your site needs to look nice, but what is way more important is the content and the navigation. If I visit a flower site to order flowers for my mum's birthday, then what I want to see when I get there is FLOWERS!
Yes my eyes will be met with the "overall look" when I land on the home page of the site, if it looks messy maybe I won't order. If it has a nice professional look then great I have a good impression, but believe me when I say this, I will not stop to think about how your site looks any further than that. I just want to buy flowers not do a review on your sites design or feature list.
An example: This is one of my clients sites http://www.anythingflowers.com the lady that owns this site UNDERSTANDS the above. She UNDERSTANDS that web users are busy impatient creatures and just want to see the goods. Notice she even added a button in her top navigation called "In A Rush?" That leads to a page that basically says, if you are busy instead of wasting time looking through all our categories let us design a lovely bouquet for you. Which product do you think her site sells most of???? You got it, the florists choice bouquets. I rest my case, her visitors want flowers not a pretty site or a live chat feature.
By the same token and this may offend some of you but it's how things are. I am really not interested in a large "about us paragraph on your home page, for goodness sake build an "about us" page and put it in your navigation, if I want to know more about you I'll find it. Right now I'm thinking about my mothers birthday, I just want to see the flowers, know how much they cost and how much delivery is. Try to keep your opening paragraph to a few lines then show me the product.
If you run a service or information site then tell me briefly about the service or information you offer, then give me a nice clear navigation so I can look around and get more details on the service or information I am interested in. KEEP IT SIMPLE!
Think for one moment about some of the biggest earning sites on the web. Is Paypal loaded with graphics and layout??? No it is very simple, clean and easy to navigate. Take a look at Ebay, the first thing you see are products and categories and a search box. Let's not forget the mother of all simple designs Google what is it? A search engine, whats the first thing you see??? A search box, get it???
There was a lot of publicity recently about the free dating site "plenty of fish" is that a design masterpiece??? NO in fact it's quite ugly, but that site earns over $500,000 A MONTH! What is the first thing you see there?? Dating search, dating ads and dating profiles, not "Plenty of fish was established in 1995 and our primary mission blah blah blah" What do you think the folks at plenty of fish spend their time on? (apart from counting their money) Design? Trendy features?? Hell no! PROMOTION!!!!!
Do you get the point??? SiteRightItis is no different from "I'm just waiting for the right time" or "I'll quit smoking before im 40" it is a form of procrastination hidden behind a rationalized creative reason. I never did like the word rationalize try a different spelling with the same sound "rational lies".
Ask yourself this: Does my site look nice?? Yes? Great! Am I hitting my visitors with the info, service or products they came for as soon as they reach my site??? Yes?? Great! Is my site easy to get around for visitors and for search engines??? Yes?? Great!
Here's some very complicated advice if you answered yes to all the above:
STOP MESSING AROUND WITH YOUR SITE AND PROMOTE IT!!!!!!!THAT IS HOW YOU WILL MAKE MONEY!!!!!!
Exchange links, list in directories, post in forums, list in search engines, write articles, join some text link exchanges, use the bigger Pay per click search engines and advertise a little. Promote your site in every legal and ethical way you can.
In closing some final reminders:
Other than an initial 5 second glance 90% of your visitors don't care about the quality of your site design, as long as it looks ok and is easy to get around. They are interested in information, products or services.
Promote Promote Promote! The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary!
About the Author
Gary McHugh is the author of many website related articles and owner of 2001 Web a complete web hosting and design service for webmasters of all levels of experience.
You can read more of his articles here
This article is free for republishing
Ok let's get serious. I have spent many years helping all sorts of web businesses get off the ground from info sites to entire shopping malls, I have built them all. What is always interesting to me is to see is which sites stay around and which disappear after a few months.
Over the past few years I have noticed something very interesting. A small percentage of my clients are constantly tweaking their sites, adding this feature, adding that feature, changing the look of this page, changing the look of that page, in essence trying to create the "Perfect" site. For me this is not a bad thing as I get paid for editing and installation services. However I often tell clients they don't need this or that and try and re-focus them a little on what they SHOULD be doing. I do have a reputation of "telling it how it is" but In my defense I could not do otherwise, I believe we sometimes need to hear wat we NEED to hear not what we want to hear.
Here is what I discovered, the webmasters that spend the most time tweaking and perfecting their sites don't have anywhere near the visitors my busiest clients do. Now while wanting your site to be "perfect" may seem like a good positive thing, it can be fraught with danger. The reason for the lack of visitors to these "tweaking" sites is simple, they spend hundreds of hours worrying about cosmetics and features, and next to no time promoting their business. Some of them even blamed the layout of the site and not the lack of promotion for its poor visitor numbers and lack of profit.
Websites are no different from traditional bricks and mortar businesses. You can have the most beautiful restaurant in the country, serving the best food on a little back street somewhere, but unless people know where it is it will fail. Well the internet is FULL of tiny back streets and your business is on one of the smallest until you promote it, get busy, and move to one of the busier streets where word of mouth brings you most your trade.
I remember many years ago when I started my first site, I did at least have the common sense to realize that I knew very little about running an online business, and went and signed myself up for a few webmaster newsletters to gleam some tips and advice from those more experienced. I will never forget the very first email I ever received from one of those webmaster sites, it's subject was "KISS" which stood for "Keep It Simple Stupid" Something I have never forgotten.
Sure your site needs to look nice, but what is way more important is the content and the navigation. If I visit a flower site to order flowers for my mum's birthday, then what I want to see when I get there is FLOWERS!
Yes my eyes will be met with the "overall look" when I land on the home page of the site, if it looks messy maybe I won't order. If it has a nice professional look then great I have a good impression, but believe me when I say this, I will not stop to think about how your site looks any further than that. I just want to buy flowers not do a review on your sites design or feature list.
An example: This is one of my clients sites http://www.anythingflowers.com the lady that owns this site UNDERSTANDS the above. She UNDERSTANDS that web users are busy impatient creatures and just want to see the goods. Notice she even added a button in her top navigation called "In A Rush?" That leads to a page that basically says, if you are busy instead of wasting time looking through all our categories let us design a lovely bouquet for you. Which product do you think her site sells most of???? You got it, the florists choice bouquets. I rest my case, her visitors want flowers not a pretty site or a live chat feature.
By the same token and this may offend some of you but it's how things are. I am really not interested in a large "about us paragraph on your home page, for goodness sake build an "about us" page and put it in your navigation, if I want to know more about you I'll find it. Right now I'm thinking about my mothers birthday, I just want to see the flowers, know how much they cost and how much delivery is. Try to keep your opening paragraph to a few lines then show me the product.
If you run a service or information site then tell me briefly about the service or information you offer, then give me a nice clear navigation so I can look around and get more details on the service or information I am interested in. KEEP IT SIMPLE!
Think for one moment about some of the biggest earning sites on the web. Is Paypal loaded with graphics and layout??? No it is very simple, clean and easy to navigate. Take a look at Ebay, the first thing you see are products and categories and a search box. Let's not forget the mother of all simple designs Google what is it? A search engine, whats the first thing you see??? A search box, get it???
There was a lot of publicity recently about the free dating site "plenty of fish" is that a design masterpiece??? NO in fact it's quite ugly, but that site earns over $500,000 A MONTH! What is the first thing you see there?? Dating search, dating ads and dating profiles, not "Plenty of fish was established in 1995 and our primary mission blah blah blah" What do you think the folks at plenty of fish spend their time on? (apart from counting their money) Design? Trendy features?? Hell no! PROMOTION!!!!!
Do you get the point??? SiteRightItis is no different from "I'm just waiting for the right time" or "I'll quit smoking before im 40" it is a form of procrastination hidden behind a rationalized creative reason. I never did like the word rationalize try a different spelling with the same sound "rational lies".
Ask yourself this: Does my site look nice?? Yes? Great! Am I hitting my visitors with the info, service or products they came for as soon as they reach my site??? Yes?? Great! Is my site easy to get around for visitors and for search engines??? Yes?? Great!
Here's some very complicated advice if you answered yes to all the above:
STOP MESSING AROUND WITH YOUR SITE AND PROMOTE IT!!!!!!!THAT IS HOW YOU WILL MAKE MONEY!!!!!!
Exchange links, list in directories, post in forums, list in search engines, write articles, join some text link exchanges, use the bigger Pay per click search engines and advertise a little. Promote your site in every legal and ethical way you can.
In closing some final reminders:
Other than an initial 5 second glance 90% of your visitors don't care about the quality of your site design, as long as it looks ok and is easy to get around. They are interested in information, products or services.
Promote Promote Promote! The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary!
About the Author
Gary McHugh is the author of many website related articles and owner of 2001 Web a complete web hosting and design service for webmasters of all levels of experience.
You can read more of his articles here
This article is free for republishing
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