Webmaster tips & trix   contact | privacylink partnersfree website content
Home » Articles » Miscellaneous
Articles

» Affiliate programs
» SE optimization
» Miscellaneous
» Newsletters & E-zines
» Promotion
» Web design
» Usability
» Domain names
» Create income
» Web writing
» Hosting
» Guerrilla marketing
» Accessibility
» Web credibility
» Data recovery

» Archive

 


Special articles

» Google tools/services
» Yahoo! tools/services


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

Latest articles

» 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.