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Three Reasons Why They Hate Your Internet Web Site Design

by Daryl Campbell

As you surf the internet, you cannot help but be impressed by the sheer variety of the different websites. People can be very creative. A good web site design draws the visitor in, puts a stamp of individuality on that particular site and raises your online profile.

Then, there is the other side of the coin. A web site page that looks as if not much thought or planning went into the design. It is a mess from the word go; however beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and web visitors maybe willing to overlook the fact that the site was not designed by Picasso. What they will not overlook is a web site page that just flat out annoys them.

There are some things you can do in the designing of your website that will not get under the skin of your visitors.

1. Where Are They Going? You go to a web site page that looks nice and has good content on it. You decide to explore further but you cannot. Why? Because you are having a hard time finding the navigation bar. When you do find it, you are taking to a page in which you have to hunt for the right link to take you to the desired information. By the time you do figure out the navigation scheme, you forgot what you were looking for.

Nobody comes online to get trapped in the Matrix. People want information and they want it quickly. Give them a simple clear easily accessible menu panel, which takes them immediately to the information they want. Also make sure no matter how deeply people explore your website, there are clearly defined guidepost on each page which can take them back to where they started.

This is also a good place to talk about over clicking. Having your visitors click multiple times to get where they want to go is an excellent way to tick people off. Do everything in your power to get them to the information they want in one click; three at the most. Anything after that is just inviting them to click away from your site.

2. The Multimedia Show. People love video and quality graphics but their first priority is to get information. If your graphics are not an integral and necessary part of your web page display, get rid of them. Keep in mind not everyone has a high speed internet connection. Excessive graphics and multimedia presentations can slow down the load time of your website substantially. People will just go to another site instead of being inconvenienced. Dazzle visitors with the content on your site first and foremost.

3. Fonts and Colors. There are few things online tougher on the eyes than a poorly thought out font style and color scheme. The number one goal of your web design is to get visitors to read the information. If people have to constantly decipher your web content then they will not bother. Stick with a basic design. Your color and font style should compliment each other while affording maximum readability to your visitors.

There will never be a time when your website pleases everyone. That is just the way it is so do not waste your time trying to create the perfect internet web site design. It does not exist. Instead focus on a site with easy navigation, which is readable, fast loading and above all contains good content. You may not satisfy everyone who visits your website but the majority will no doubt like what they see and read.

About the Author:
Daryl Campbell invites you to get more free tips, video, step by step coaching and up to the minute information to help you grow your business into a long term success at Internet Marketing Guide

Wealth Magnet System Tips For Building An Opt In List

by Hightide

by Gary Fritts

In this article we are going to discuss the importance of building an opt in list. Almost any program you are using to make money on the internet will require some follow-up on your part. Having a list of your own is the best way to do that.

If you have ever spent your time calling and emailing leads you bought from a list broker then you know how difficult that can be. Now compare that to having a list of people who know you and look forward to hearing from you.

This is what an opt in list is. People who have agreed to receive email from you. When they fill out on online form and hit the submit button they are opting in. When they click on the link in the first email they receive they are now a double opt in lead.

The value to you, and your program, is you now have a quality prospect who wants to see what you have to offer. Internet marketing and making money on the internet is a numbers game. Generally the person with the largest list will make the most money.

Even better than that is a quality list of people who want to hear from you. You build on this by keeping in touch and providing valuable and interesting information. Over time you become a trusted person who is there to help.

The Wealth Magnet System is perfect for this type of marketing because you make money helping people learn how to market their business. You need a list to be able to do this.

You are able to teach your list and in turn make more sales personally from it. So how do you build a list.

Getting traffic to a landing page where you trade something of value for their contact information is a great way to build an opt in list. To do this you need 3 things.

1. An autoresponder to capture names and email addresses for future follow up.

2. A domain name

3. Hosting for your splash page where you place your sign up form.

3. A giveaway such as a free report or ebook that creates an incentive for them to fill out the short info form.

From here you promote the splash page all over the internet capturing names and following up using your program as a way for them to make money. As your list grows you will be able to increase sales for years to come as people stay on your list.

About the Author:
Gary Fritts has been teaching people how to make money on the web for over 10 years. He is currently the Senior Trainer at the Wealth Magnet Systemhttp://www.aWealthMagnetSystem.com

Huge Sale at Geeks.com!

by Hightide

Geeks.com is in the middle of an End of the Month Sale that’s pretty amazing. Big Deals…Huge Savings….all to the tune of up to 85 percent off in a lot of cases.

The Compaq Presario SR2170NX tower system (to the left), for example, is regularly $349.99, but it’s marked down to $299.99. Even with my math skills, I know that’s $50 saved, and I didn’t even have to use my fingers.

From the Website:
This Compaq Presario SR2170NX tower system is powered by an Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM. Its 160 GB hard drive provides ample storage space for music, photos, critical data and other files. Plus, Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic comes pre-installed.

Access CD and DVD media and burn CDs and DVDs with the DVD±RW Lightscribe drive. There’s plenty of room for expansion with three PCI slots, one PCI Express x16 slot and two DIMM sockets. A keyboard and mouse are included so just add a monitor to start computing!

This is just one of the big sales going on, so be sure to visit Geeks.com before all the penny-pinching geeks in the world buy everything.

They’re just so that way.

Toxic Web Links – Keep Them Off Your Site!

by Hightide

by Lauren Hobson

Most small businesses know that a good link building strategy is essential to a web site’s success in the search engines. If you want your site to show up on the first few pages of search results, you really need other credible web sites to “vote” for you by linking to your web site. Up until recently, it was common for web sites to exchange reciprocal links in order to help each other build inbound links to their web sites. But while this used to be a useful strategy, the rules have recently changed and now you must learn how to play the new link-building game!

Be Picky About Reciprocal Links Reciprocal links can sometimes be helpful, but only in very specific instances. In order to be useful, the incoming link (from the other web site) should be on a page that has a higher page rank than the page on your web site containing the link that goes back to them. Plus, the text of the link on the other web site should match one or more of the keywords on your site. If you can get reciprocal links that meet these criteria, then they may be helpful to you in the search engines. Also remember to steer clear of inbound links from link farms, free-for-all sites, and paid links since these are almost always penalized by the search engines.

It’s Not a Democracy The idea of a reciprocal link counting as a “vote” for your web site may be appealing, but there’s also a downside. Each link on your site that goes out to another web site essentially deducts a vote from your site as well. Reciprocal links can be a no-gain situation for you, and could end up hurting your site overall in the eyes of the search engines.

Voting Against Yourself One of the new link-building rules that may surprise you is that one-way outbound links on your site may be a bad idea from a search engine’s point of view. For instance, if you have a “Helpful Links” or “Resources” page on your site that contains one-way outbound links to other sites, you are probably losing lots of ground in the search engines. To avoid these “negative votes” for your site, be sure your outbound links are coded with the NOFOLLOW attribute so the search engines know these outbound links should not be deducted from your web site’s score.

Link Content is Key In order for your links to really be powerful, there must be a relationship between what you say about your web site, and what other people on the web say about your web site. How does a search engine determine this? It’s all in the link text. The text of each inbound link to your site must match the keywords used on your web site, or else the search engines may simply ignore that inbound link.

For example, if you want to rank for the keyword “travel” but the inbound links to your site contain just the name of your company, then there’s no way the search engines will know that these inbound links have anything to do with travel.

Send Your Site to De-Tox Ranking well in the search engines can be a moving target, so it’s important to do everything you can to protect your site. Always try to build inbound links that contain your relevant keywords in the link text, and get rid of the reciprocal links on your site that are not working for you. Also be careful when coding your one-way outbound links so that you aren’t unintentionally “deducting votes” from your own web site. These simple steps can help you build effective inbound links, while avoiding those that may have recently become bad news for your web site’s search engine rankings.

About the Author:
Lauren Hobson is the Editor of Biz Talk Newsletter and the Five Sparrows Marketing Blog from Five Sparrows, LLC. Read the most recent Five Sparrows articles on small business websites and marketing or subscribe at www.fivesparrows.com/biztalk. Copyright 2007

The importance of building search engine friendly web sites

by Hightide

by Robert Griggs

There are many aspects in regards to search engine optimisation. There are on-page procedures such as optimising meta tags, titles, page copy, urls, alt tags and the like. We also know that another important aspect is off-page seo whereby a lot of time and effort is put in in order to obtain quality inbound links to your site. This normally takes the shape of directory submission, article writing and submission, competition analysis, social media marketing and blogging to name a few.

These are all crucial elements of search engine optimisation and are a major part of any seo specialists daily chors.

One element of SEO that can be easily overlooked is the building of a web site that is not only “user friendly” but also “search friendly”. By “search friendly” we mean that the search engines can crawl and spider your site unimpeded which will enable it to extract all of your content and in turn index it within the search engines database. After all, what use is getting thousands of inbound one way links to your site, if your site is not user or search friendly?

There are a number of things worth considering when building a user and search engine friendly web site. They are:-

1. Use as much text as possible in the form of HTML – Search engines love plain text. They are not able to read images, video files, audio files or flash, so try to not use too much of these in your site design.

Another thing to consider is that some sites make users log in in order to view certain content or use a form to find content. Both of these are bad. Spiders/crawlers do not know how to log in to your site or fill out a form in order to find your content. So if you want your content to be indexed by the search engines, stay away from this. If you MUST do this, try to produce a snippet of the content to entice users to log in. That way the spider at least has something to chew on.

2. Make your urls understandable – This means creating urls such as www.mysite.com/how-to-bring-up-your-children.html and NOT www.mysite.com/children/article-09876R-YTUR-4tr.html As you can see the first url is not only “user friendly” but is also “search engine friendly” meaning that the search engines read more meaning and relevance into this url than the second one. Dont forget also that if you were to copy the second url into an email, your signature or post on a blog etc it wouldnt be totally clear where the link was going. This cannot be said for the first url.

3. Structure your site well – This means making your site as flat as possible. Instead of structuring your site in way that means a user has to click 10 times before reaching their target make the content a maximum of 4 clicks away or less.

4. Design your site for users NOT search engines – As much as possible treat the search engines as if they were human beings manually scouring your site for content to index. If it is easy for humans to find what they are looking for on your site, logic says that the spiders will also find what they are looking for and index it. The more “speadbumps” you put in the way of spiders, the slower your site will be crawled and indexed(if at all).

5. Content is king – One of my favorite expressions which is so true. Great content has many benefits, after all, its what we are all after, even the search engines. The search engines job is to find “relevant” search data. When the search engine starts dishing out “irrelevant” results, thats the time when it is going to become out of favour with web users who will move onto another engine.

Having great site content has many benefits such as if your content is good and original, people will want to link to it and your site, so its a good way of building natural links which is something that google likes. If you write good genuine creative content on your topic you will start to become an authority in your chosen field meaning more links and brand/site awareness.

The more content you have the more opportunity you will have of inserting your keywords making it look as natural as possible to the search engines. Although keyword density is no longer a major factor with search engines, it is something that needs to be done.

Well, thats the end of this article with some tips on making your site not only “user friendly” but just as importantly “search friendly”. It is something that can be easily overlooked especially as gaining backlinks is viewed as THE most important SEO practice at the moment.

Overlook it at your peril!!

Until next time…

About the Author:
Rob Griggs is an SEO specialist based in Spain. For further information on his web design and seo services, please visit his search engine optimisation spain web site.

Online Video Marketing

by Hightide

by Mac Craig

Internet video marketing : Watch your sales soar!

A lot of people prefer watching to reading, especially on the computer screen. Calling movies a ‘video’ is actually a misnomer – it is ‘audio + video’ or what is called an AV. Audio Visuals have been seen to have a far greater retention level among internet viewers than written information.

It is no wonder, therefore, that video advertising is fast becoming a major internet marketing tool for selling products and services.

Advantages of Internet Video Advertising

The main advantage of Internet marketing videos over the traditional text format approach is that videos can get to the point much faster. Even a static visual is worth a thousand words, it is taught in graphic design schools. Imagine what a moving visual, or the movie, can do in delivering your message to the viewer.

The viral edge is another advantage Internet videos have over other traditional marketing channels. There is no better marketing strategy than ‘word-of-mouth’. Websites continually share and serve popular content driven by user choice. The speed at which videos are picked up, shared, and distributed is unparalleled to any other.

Internet Video sharing sites like ‘youtube’ are a rage today, and this is a reflection of the choice of internet surfers. New sites like LeadsbyVideo are coming up with video sharing innovations which are great for online marketing.

A video ad can actually demonstrate a product’s usability, so don’t just say it, show it!. A nicely produced visual message with a human touch can do wonders in reaching out emotionally to the customer. Does the quality of the video matter? Yes, of course. Like in other marketing tools, there are experts available who can produce the right movie to suit your product, and budget.

A Few Tips

1. Use the videos on the first page. It’s like handing out your business card. The first page recommends you, and the first impression is a lasting one. Don’t tuck your marketing video away, on some inside page. Make it visible.

2. Always have a ‘call for action’ – something that the customer will feel like doing immediately, like clicking on a link, or filling up a form.

3. Search for the tools that can tell you how much of your video was played before the visitor closed it, how many prospects actually decided to pay your site a visit after watching your video, how many of these visits converted into sales, and so on.

4. Today you can track traffic on the website and analyze results. Make an extra effort to measure the impact that your videos have had on the prospects, and to measure their performance.

5. Use Search Engine Optimization techniques to generate leads. Remember, videos are a gourmet dish for search engines, so give it proper time and prepare it with extra care. Use the right ingredients, so to speak.

Go ahead, share your video!

About the Author:
Mac Craig is an internet professional who has been serving several firms as an online marketing consultant. He counsels on internet video marketing and video advertising.

What Are You Waiting For?!?!

by Hightide

You’ve heard how fun (and financially rewarding) a website and/or can be. Your only problem is that, like most people, you don’t know how to build one.

…or register a domain…

…or make the graphics…

…or submit it to search engines…

…or add pictures…

…or add Google ads…

…..etc. after discouraging etc…..

To cut to the chase, you need a little help!

Your options? If you want a blog and you want one as fast as possible – Blogger.com is a pretty good place to start. It’s absolutely free and you can actually be blogging in a matter of hours. Less if you don’t do any customizing to the template. With Bloggger you don’t even have to worry about registering a domain.

Even though I run a Web Publishing business and a great deal of my income is based on creating blogs and websites for people, I wholeheartedly give Blogger.com two thumbs up. It’s a great place to start.

However, if you are serious about making money online and doing so in a professional manner – you need a domain as well as a professionally-done website and/or blog.

My suggestions are as follows:

1. Hightide-Web Pubishing specializes in the kind of service you need. If you’re new to the arena of websites or blogging, you need someone who will take the time to help you each step of the way. When our clients hire us, we rally around them to create just the sort of online presence they need and want. E-mail me today ( joisigers @ aim . com ) and tell me exactly what it is you’re thinking about. We’ll get back to you asap with your best course of action, as well as what this course would cost!

2. Another excellent place to start would be www.GoDaddy.com. Known for being the number one Domain Name Registrar, Go Daddy has a reputation that simply can’t be topped. However, they do a lot more than that – Did you know that Go Daddy also offers professional website design and hosting. You could, literally go to www.GoDaddy.com and get everything you could possibly need to create your online presence!

Whichever route you go – your worries and headaches are only a click or two away!

Passion + talent + Specialization = Success

by Hightide

by Rick Sloboda

Those who tap into their raw talents and passion get ahead further and faster in the ever-expanding Web world.

It seems obvious, but most web types get drawn toward immediate, short-term opportunities and wander far from their true calling.

Enter specialization

Renew your drive by specializing in an area where you naturally thrive.

When you focus on one particular area or niche, your knowledge and experience increase rapidly. Within a short timeframe, you get in tune with leading technologies and trends, become established in your industry and market, start to earn top dollar and ultimately gain full control of a satisfying career.

Conversely, if you attempt to be all things to all people, you’ll produce mediocre work and attract comparable clients.

Such was the case with a web-savvy individual who recently completed a series of projects for my business. During the 1990s, he had his hands in programming, design, online marketing and copywriting. “I was attracting the worst customers,” he said. When he wasn’t haggling over price, he was dealing with unhappy clients demanding freebies. He finally decided to stick with what he knows best: programming. Now he works less, makes more and gets to pick his clients.

Not too long ago, another programmer who’s been developing websites for 10 years asked me: “Should I go to school so I can also provide clients designs?”

Rather than broaden his work scope, I suggested he narrow it. A great programmer can’t necessarily become a great designer and vice-verse. It comes down to recognizing what you’re good at and leveraging that talent. After all, it’s no coincidence the very best websites are collectively created by professional web copywriters, designers, programmers and other specialists.

On the design front, a Vancouver-based design team I’ve worked with began researching the food industry’s web needs, and decided to pursue that niche. It didn’t take long to land some notable restaurants and become the ‘go to’ web design firm in that industry. They discovered they have a knack for it, wholeheartedly threw themselves into it and clients now knock on their door.

Unleash your true passion and talent

How do you determine your niche? Consider what you love doing and what you do well. Hopefully the two overlap. Then determine your market; who could you best serve? Finally, fine-tune how you position yourself by listening closely to common customer complaints and problems. If there’s a pain your competition or the industry isn’t paying attention to, you’re sitting on a goldmine.

Some tips on determining your potential expertise and niche:

1) Write down what, how, when and where you are going to offer your service.

2) Describe your strengths (how and why you’re better than the competition).

3) Acknowledge your weaknesses (things you need to improve or delegate).

4) Develop a profile of your ideal client (age, sex, needs, spending habits, region and so on).

The sharper your focus in a particular segment of your industry, the quicker you can gain expertise or even authority status in your field. And that’s when the best clients come to you; the one’s who value your work and pay accordingly.

About the Author:
Rick Sloboda is Founder and Senior Web Copywriter of www.webcopyplus.com, which focuses exclusively on web writing services.

GoDaddy Love

by Hightide

We’ve been in business online for over 8 years and have seen the best of the best and the worst of the worst. There are services and companies we’d recommend without reservation and there are those we’d do everything in our power to keep people away from!

The World’s Largest Registrar – GoDaddy.com
got its reputation one way and one way only – by simply being the best at what they do. We have too many domains registered with them to even count and have never, ever had a problem.

But there’s more. They treat each and every customer as though they’re the only one they have. They offer special deals to their customers and give them occasional discount codes to use which save even more money. Needless to say, GoDaddy is one of the resources we’d recommend without a moment’s hesitation.

The next time you want to register a domain or the when you find yourself in need of a server/host – the smartest thing you could do would be to check GoDaddy first. And last.

Five Key Steps In Online Business Planning

by Hightide

by Jim Edwards

It rates easier than ever to start a new business on the Internet.

Never before have the opportunities been more available, the tools cheaper, or the prospects of success more likely.

Whether you’re a seasoned veteran looking to expand an existing online business, a casual dabbler looking for a part-time income, or an offline professional wanting to expand your market online, the following five key steps will help you reach your goals.

Key # 1: Define Your “Target”

Clearly list and explain what you want to accomplish in your web site business.

We all think about what we want to get or accomplish in life and our job.

But did you ever list it specifically in terms of money, traffic to a web site, or more sales online?

This principle and simple activity applies to an ebook, a new website, an ezine or any other business goal.

Defining a clear target will give your conscious and sub conscious mind something definite to shoot for.

Examples include: the number of subscribers to your ezine; sales per day on your website; pages written in an ebook; new advertising sources found; number of affiliates recruited and more.

Key # 2: Define the Cost”

You must “define the cost” in terms of the tools, resources, and people you need to reach your online business target, no matter what type of business you operate.

How much will it cost in time per hour, day, week and month for all of the items?

Also, how much will it cost in terms of money to operate the business, buy traffic, pay for hosting, design and more.

Sit down and map out the costs before throwing open your doors (or wallet) so you don’t get hit with any nasty surprises.

Key # 3: “Make a List”

To create a real business that can be systematized, you must list off every single thing or element connected with your business, from the first idea to making daily deposits into the bank.

You may not know how they’ll get done right now, but you must recognize that eventually these items must get done.

You can easily come up with a fairly comprehensive list by brainstorming just to get them down on paper.

Then, when you think you thought of everything, let someone else take a look and poke holes in your list with all kinds of additions and questions.

Key # 4: “Prioritize”

Here you must list all the elements you planned in number 3 in the exact order of how you should complete them.

Car makers must build in a planned order or the finished product won’t work.

Once you sketch out your complete plan, let someone else take a look to see if you forgot a step.

In fact, they might point out that you forgot to tighten the lug nuts and the wheels fell off in the dealership!

Key # 5: “One Step At A Time”

Most people want it all and they want it now!

Unfortunately, the real world doesn’t work that way.

Whether you do all the work yourself, outsource the job, or a combination of the two, everything must get done in the correct order in the correct way.

My motto reads, “Multi Tasking = Inefficiency.

Don’t try to do two different jobs at the same time, you’ll most likely screw up both and waste time and money doing them a second time.

Doing web site copy and email don’t mix, auto responder messages and voice mail don’t mix.

So pass each milestone on your roadmap and get things done properly and in sequence.

Launching an efficient and effective online business is not difficult.

It just requires careful planning, step-by-step execution, and attention to detail in order to greatly increase your chances of success.

About the Author:
Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the creator of http://www.TheNetReporter.com – a hard-hitting, no-holds-barred website that will teach you step-by-step and click-by-click how to really cash-in online…Discover what really works RIGHT NOW… plus the new twists on tried and true Internet Marketing techniques that create a profitable “real” business you can be proud of… => http://www.TheNetReporter.com

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