|
Ready to launch your online business?
©Judy Vorfeld
Are you ready for your grand opening? If you've spent lots of time studying
what works and what doesn't, in terms of customer expectations and search
engine essentials: go for it! Before you launch, however, why not go over
your check list one more time?
DOMAIN NAME
You bought your own domain name and have a good Web hosting service. You've
made it as easy as possible for people to relate the domain name to your
business. If you couldn't get the domain name you wanted, you'll brand
your business so people will have some point of reference.
TEXT
Your site has readable text. You avoided dark text on a black background;
too small a font size; big blobs of bolded text; bulky paragraphs; underlined
text that is not actually hyperlinked; and putting the text too close
to the edge of a box or table cell. You don't have unusually wide lines
of text, strange fonts for your body text, or too many italics. You made
sure that link text can be read, easily, when it's on top of any block
of color.
GRAMMAR
You have excellent punctuation, spelling, and usage. Your words clearly
define the reason for your site, and you worked hard to create powerful
sentences and headings. You use "its" when it means possession,
and "it's" when it means "it is" or "it has."
You use "their" when it means possession; "they're"
when it means "they are"; and "there" when it means
"in (or at) that place." And you capitalize the proper noun,
"Internet."
CONTACT INFORMATION
You offer clear contact information, including a mailing address. You've
placed your business name, address, and phone and fax numbers, plus your
e-mail address, at the bottom of every page.
GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION
Aware that you have just a few seconds to hook visitors into remaining
on your site, you optimized all your graphics so they load quickly. You've
visited enough sites to know that graphics must enhance, not overpower,
both visually and in terms of loading time. You avoided animation, knowing
that it detracts from the text. And you--wonderful you--didn't use the
dreaded marquee feature and scrolling status bar text!
A FLASHY SITE
You may use Flash in your design, but very carefully. You've visited many
Flash-based sites where loading time was excessive, and you left, never
to return. Plus, all-Flash sites hold no interest for most search engines.
MISPLACED HUMOR
You have a terrific sense of humor, but you avoided trying to be cute
or clever by using phrases like, "heh heh" or "hee hee"
on your site. Best of all, you didn't use ONE smiley emoticon! :)
ABOUT YOU
While you didn't give your life history, you revealed who you are and
why you have your online business. You want potential customers to know
that you have a legitimate business and hope to build a long-term relationship
of trust and respect.
PRIVACY POLICY
In line with building trust and respect, you offer a good privacy policy.
NAVIGATION AND SITE ORGANIZATION
Visitors can move seamlessly from one page to another on your site, because
you sat down and effectively organized your site's hierarchy . . . um,
make that "outline" or "directory." You also put text
links of your most important pages at the bottom of each page. And since
some pages are necessarily long, you inserted "top" anchors
and "top of page" hyperlinks for ease of navigation.
BARRIERS: CALLING OUT THE RESOLUTION, BROWSERS, & PLUG-INS
Way to go! You avoided telling visitors what browser, resolution, and
plug-ins they must (or should) use. Instead, you designed for the widest
possible audience, using at least three major browsers for testing; checked
your pages using a good site validation program; and fixed what didn't
work. During this phase, you asked several people to test your site, including
some who use AOL, WebTV and a Mac. And you get a gold star for not using
an "under construction" graphic on unfinished pages.
CONCLUSION
Lots of people upload unfinished business sites, and then scamper around
the Web applying for every possible award. Do you wonder why? Some hope
they'll get free ideas for site improvement. Others hope to impress their
visitors with their lists of awards. But you decided to put the horse
before the cart. You worked hard, had a good checklist, tested carefully,
and are ready to open for business.
Sure, you'll make changes. Every website is constantly under construction.
You plan to study those professionals offering solid advice for online
businesses, or hire someone who can do that for you. Or both. You stand
out, because you offered the best you had at the beginning, rather than
opening with a weak, skeleton-like framework that you'll fill in when
you find the time. Congratulations!
Now get out there and network. Locally and on the Internet. Let others
get to know you and your business.
About the author
Judy Vorfeld's operating system is Windows and her primary software
includes WordPerfect; Microsoft Word; Microsoft Publisher; Adobe Acrobat;
PaintShopPro; and Macromedia HomeSite. Please visit her website: http://www.ossweb.com |
» Change
your mind about an eBay bid?
We have all made choices in life that two seconds later
we know we should take back. Especially when there is money involved
this can become a problem.
» A
simple way to create 7 effective autoresponder messages
Email is the Net's most powerful marketing tool. And autoresponders
are the best idea yet for marketing with email.
» 7
ways to drive laser-targeted traffic to your website
Getting people who matter to see one’s website
is a difficult undertaking if he tries to consider the fact that
there are rivals everywhere waiting to pin him down.
» Website
valuation: Why standard website pricing methods will emerge
The market of buying and selling developed websites is
becoming more and more liquid each day.
» One
way links are better than reciprocal links
You probably know by now that where your website ranks in
the search engine rankings dramatically affects how many visitors you
have to your site. Did you also know that you can change where your
site is ranked by being proactive and getting as many one way links
to your site as possible?
» How
to make visitors stay at your website
The very first thing which you should provide the visitors
with is some free interesting reading material.
» How
to make your visitors click your ads
Here is a simple solution; Convert your banner advertisement
to look like a text advertisement!
» Offline
advertising should be a part of your online strategy
Day by day, online business has become more & more
complicated and competitive.
» How
to sell traffic
Selling the traffic arriving at your site is a good method
to increase profits from your portal.
» Make
money from online auctions
Online auctions have the best benefit of a vast platform.
Your product is viewed by loads of people & hence there is
more possibility of finding a suitable bidder.
» Groupware
explained in easy terms
Groupware is a term used frequently to describe collaborative
software. Groupware is application software that integrates work
on a single project by several concurrent users at separated random
workstations.
» Timely
back up can save you from disasters
Few things which people often back up are e-mail addresses,
bank records, photographs, personal records, software’s,
music etc.
» Why
should one go for autoresponders
Autoresponders are programs which get automatically
executed in particular situations.
» Become
your own boss - Start your own online business today
A survey conducted by SBA states that two third of new
business survives at least two year and about forty four percent
survives at least four year.
» Express
your thoughts - Creating your own blog!
What exactly is a blog? Technically speaking it is a
journal or a newsletter which is regularly updated and can be used
by any one.
» Pop-up
ads - To be or not to be?
According to a study conducted by the Bunnyfoot University, “The
Efficacy of Pop-ups and the Resulting Effect on Brands” Internet
users feel harangues and harassed by pop-up ads.
» Why
content is king on the Internet
The advantages that Internet holds over the rest of
the other communication mediums should not wasted because of
the inability to find a comprehensive plan that will bind all
these faculties together.
» 10
niche marketing tips
In our increasingly driven consumer economies, the average
customer is bombarded by choices. With increased saturation of the
market, companies look towards niche marketing to search new, ever-evolving
and sophisticated consumers.
» Using
free traffic exchange
These days internet has emerged as both, a market and
hub for marketing. Unlike the ‘brick and mortar’ world
where large manufacturers manage to squeeze out the market bases
of smaller companies, the internet provides haven like the free
traffic exchange.
» Ten
ways to drive traffic to your website
Developing a web site and then letting it grow is
like planting a tree and then nurturing it.
» Marketing
through keyword articles
One of the most effective tools of Internet marketing
is the use of keyword articles.
» Want
to make money online? Market a service to businesses
Don walked across the street from his house to mine to
announce he had finally retired. "But I'm not ready for the
golf course," he said. "I want to make a living on the
Internet. What can I sell?"
» Web
site design mistakes - Database parameters in URLs
Creating a web site takes thought, planning and execution.
Unfortunately, many designs are dead in the water before they are
even published as far as search engine optimization is concerned.
Whatever you do, avoid these critical mistakes.
» Alexa
Toolbar - The ultimate internet tool
There are numerous tools available on the Internet to
assist online businesses. A valuable tool that you should use is
the Alexa Toolbar. Even better, this tool is free.
» Web
site design mistakes
Some wise human once said "Learn from the mistakes
of others. There isn't nearly enough time to make them all yourself."
Hence this article. Here are five of the most annoying and common
web design mistakes.
» Abandonment
- Why visitors don't turn into customers
Every good Internet business understands the value of
conversions versus hits received. Far too often, businesses become
fixated on the hits they are receiving instead of monitoring their
hit to sale conversion rate.
» Creative
search engine optimization - A case study
Search engine optimization this and search engine optimization
that. You read and hear about it all day, but what about your site?
|
|
Tools & services to enhance your online
business |
|
» Site
Build It!
Over 100,000 small businesses of all kinds outperform
larger, well-financed competitors. Read about this all-in-one site-building-hosting-marketing
system of tools that delivers results.
» Secrets
To Their Success
Take a private tour of two "Mom & Pop"
web sites every month that earn $100,000+ a year... and discover
the exact step-by-step strategies they have personally used to generate
these massive profits. |
|
|
|