Some valuable tips on creative website design

Tip 1 – Website is a medium to communicate with prospective clients, thus professional designers have to keep this particular point in mind. Make the website more communicable so that visitors can easily communicate with the owner. It may be through a live chat facility, or by placing a short contact form into every important page so that people can easily contact the business owner.

Tip 2 – An effective eye-catching logo can easily grab the attention of the visitor. Nowadays, through web 2 design style, giant sized, colorful eye-catching logos can add more appeal to the websites to impress the web traffic.

Tip 3 – The next most powerful weapon that can be used in your website to attract the audience should be the uniquely design icons. Meaningful unique icons (apart from other traditional icons) in your website will easily attract the web traffic. This will also help you to gain more business through that website.

Tip 4 – Use easy readable fonts while placing the content at your web page. Allow the web designer to choose the font for your website. Nowadays web designers place different fonts to announce different segments of your content (Like main content, special offers, website new etc).

Tip 5 – Text size is equally important. Sometimes it is often observed that website designers try to highlight the design in particular. They seem to ignore the value of the content. Thus don't let your content text size to be too small which may affect the readability factor.

Tip 6 – Image placement is another very tough task. In a recent review it was found that 90% of web traffic travel through links and images. Thus placing proper meaningful images at your website to impress the incoming visitor is indeed a very crucial task.

Tip 7 – Link the images with important pages so that you can smartly push the audience to travel to your website. Professional website designers have the ability to take the responsibility to bring out the best output from here.

Tip 8 – Suppose your website has some special promotional offers and you wish to focus them towards your web traffic, through Web 2 Design style web designers can place glowing colorful boxes for special announcements which would easily attract visitors.

Tip 9 – Use of polite background colors throughout your website is another important responsibility. Web designers refrain from using too many bright colors within a website template. Colors play the emotional role in audience's mind. Choose the colors smartly while designing a web template, so that the visitor is attracted to your website.

Tip 10 - Usability of any website template determine the flow of web traffic from your index page to other important pages. If your website has steady navigation and if the website seems as easy-to-use then visitors would travel your entire website and gather their required information from your website.

Crucial Email Marketing Tips

Focus on One Message

If you’re sending non-newsletter email blasts, stick to one primary message for each email sent out. The more information you pack into an email, the higher the chance the recipient’s eyes will glaze over and they’ll reach for delete. Keep it to one focus point and put it right in the subject and first lines of the message to make it easier for those just skimming to absorb your message.
Email newsletters are expected to provide bits and pieces of several messages, so this tip doesn’t really apply to newsletters. But you should still keep your newsletter blurbs short and to the point, making the information easy to grasp.

Customize Your Message

Use the recipient’s name in your message whenever possible. Something as simple as customizing the email in this way can make the recipient more likely to read through and act on your message.

Include a Call to Action

Each email you send should spell out exactly what you want the recipient to do. Make links obvious and call attention to any special directions you are providing. And it’s okay to be repetitive when it comes to the call to action – include it toward the top of the message and mention it again at the end.

Use a Template

Instead of sending out a generic email, take time to customize your template to reflect the colors, fonts and other branding elements of your business. Using the same email template for your messages will help the recipient recognize your company and generate feelings of trust.
You’ll also want to provide a plain text version that contains the same message but is stripped of all special formatting for recipients using email clients that cannot view messages in HTML. And don’t forget to test out your final template in multiple email clients to make sure it looks how you want it to across the board.

Watch Your Stats

Most email marketing services provide campaign statistics so you can monitor the number of opens, clicks, bounces and unsubscribes. As you get started with email marketing, try a few different formats and link placements and then compare the stats to gauge your success.
And don’t be so quick to unsubscribe bounced addresses. An email can bounce for any number of reasons, and it’s best to wait to see if the address bounces more than once before scrubbing it from your list.

What email marketing tips have you learned from your experience that you would add to this list?

Email etiquette for online business

As a Webmaster, online business owner or even as a part of your normal job, email is a vital line of communication with your visitors, clients and associates.

Your approach to email communications can mean the difference between your web sites' success or failure. Every email you send should be considered as an exercise in marketing.

As your site grows, be prepared for the influx of email. It will take up hours of your time, but the benefits of dealing with enquiries courteously and efficiently are great.

As the pace of email flow picks up, you'll probably also notice that the level of spam will also increase. How many legitimate emails have you accidentally deleted by confusing them with spam? Now think of the other end of the equation - are people perhaps deleting your emails thinking that they are the same?

How do you like to be addressed when people write to you? Do you address the people you write to with the same level of respect and courtesy?

The following tips can help you in honing your email communications skills:

• Remember that whatever you send can be forwarded to others, so anything you do send can easily become public knowledge. An email disclaimer can give you low level protection against this occurring, but it won't stop it.
• 
  The forging of email addresses by spammers and viruses is becoming increasingly prevalent. You should not necessarily assume that a message is valid.
• 
  Be careful with viewing attachments, as this is a popular means of transmitting computer viruses. If you have a virus scanner installed, right clicking on the attachment should present a menu option to scan the item. If this option does not exist, save the attachment to the hard drive and scan it from within the anti-virus program before opening it. Switch off the preview window in your mail application as many viruses can execute if this function is left on.
  
• Respect the copyright on material that you reproduce. Cite all references, quotes and sources used. Plagiarism applies to e-mail messages as much as other documents.
  
• Do not give another person access to your e-mail account as you will be held responsible for anything they may transmit.
  
• If you are forwarding a message you've received, do not change the wording. If you are replying to a message, only quote the relevant parts of the original message (i.e. enough to put your reply in context). Do not include the whole message.
  
• E-mail lacks the advantages of body language and intonation, which are present in face-to-face communications. Take care with sarcasm and humor. You may inadvertently put the wrong message across.
  
• If you know the persons' name - use it. Launching straight into the subject of the email can be perceived as being arrogant. The common practice of not using some sort of opening salutation is also quite rude e.g. just "Fred" instead of "Hello Fred" or "Dear Fred". Your mother was right; good manners cost nothing, so use them ;).
  
• Remember that once a message is sent, it cannot be recalled, so take care with responding in the "heat of the moment". If you are angry when typing an email, it can be placed in the drafts folder for later review.
  
• Use mixed case. UPPER CASE LETTERS ALONE ARE CONSIDERED "SHOUTING". Use upper case only for emphasis.
  
• Email messages should have a subject line which is to the point regarding the message contents. The practice of leaving the subject line blank is especially annoying to those people who receive large quantities of email as they often prioritize according to subject.
  
• Tagging an email message using the "High Importance" features available in some email programs should never be done unless the message is really urgent. Some people mark all their messages with this tag thinking that it will get attention. It does the first couple of times, but then their messages are generally ignored or deleted.
  
• If you include a signature keep it short - no longer than 4-5 lines. Always ensure that your name is included in your subject line - people want to know who is communicating with them, not just sigs like "Customer Support Team" or equivalent. If you are that worried about your privacy, then you shouldn't be online. At least include your first name, it's just basic courtesy.
  
• When sending attached files such as spreadsheets or word processed documents, use a version which is likely to be supported by the recipient. Save Word files in the Word 6.0/95 format and Excel files in the Excel 5.0 format, unless you know the software application the recipient is using supports your file formats. Many people still use dialup Internet access and may have bandwidth caps, so it's considered good manners to ask for permission before sending large attachments. Your 5 megabyte funny picture may clog the persons' mailbox and prevent other more important messages from being retrieved before it is downloaded. There are better ways to send large files.
  
• When sending emails to multiple names, ensure that distribution lists are used responsibly in that the message is sent only to the necessary people. Sending a large attachment to 100 addresses unnecessarily could cause problems with your mail server.
  
• When sending email to multiple addresses, and the people on the list do not know each other, respect their privacy by putting the list of names in the Bcc (Blind carbon copy) field. This ensures that each person receiving the email will only see their name and not the whole list.
  
• Read and respond to your e-mail regularly. The immediacy of e-mail is lost if it sits unnoticed in your mailbox for long periods.
  
• Delete unwanted messages on a daily basis from your mailbox . This will also help prevent important emails being deleted accidentally.
  
• Save your important messages to a special folder to keep a record - emails are legal documents.
  
• Using specialized stationary may look great to you, but it can be a real pain in the neck to others with increased download times and compatibility issues. The safest bet for general email communications is still to use plain text messages.
  
• Just because someone appears arrogant in a communication to you, it doesn't mean that you should reflect the tone. Always maintain a professional approach - it may be that the person writing to you is not overly familiar with the English language, has general literacy problems or is just having a *really* bad day. A friendly note back can often change their entire attitude. Even if the person continues to be unreasonable, you can terminate ongoing communications in a professional way.
  
• When writing an email, put yourself in the recipients position and estimate their level of knowledge, taking into account what you know about the person. If you know nothing about them, ensure that you are clear and concise. The simpler the better, without being patronizing.

Make Mistakes While Nobody is Watching

A website test can often involve a lot of people, IT staff, Designers, Content Owners, etc. While the technicals are fairly straight-forward, the process involved to get everyone working together can be really hard. And people *will* make mistakes.

Are you going to wait to make those mistakes while everyone is focused on you for that massive Home Page test that you just barely got approval to run after months of trying ??

Why not make those mistakes before anyone cares?

Start with a test page. Have your designer create alternate content for it, your IT staff put in the code, etc. This gives you an opportunity to talk to everyone about what you’re doing and where you’re going and why it is in their best interest to get the kinks worked out beforehand. It’s not a real page on the site so if the code is put in wrong, it’s no big deal — noone cares.
Move on to an actual page on the website that is not important to anyone. This is a slightly bigger deal than the test page, but if you screw it up, noone will probably notice. Just test something minor that noone will notice. Decide on a conversion page and look at real data. Try presenting the results.

This practice is beneficial to everyone involved, so that when the real test comes around, you’ve already made your mistakes, and hopefully, worked them out. Remember that the point of the practice is to work out the process and make sure everyone looks good when it is time to do the real first test.

Indexed Flash - Is It Good Or Bad?

With both Google and Yahoo developing methods of successfully indexing flash, we will see the birth of search engine friendly flash web sites. You can already preform a flash search on google but they do not rank highly in general searches, even if they are extremely relevant.
To perform a flash search in Google just add a .swf extension to your search, You will then see that the results returned display [flash] in front of them. The returned results are not brilliant but I guess it is still under development.

Now lets talk search engine optimization. Is it a positive thing that Search Engines can index your flash? And does the indexing just happen with static text or can dynamic text be read? One main concern it that you can pretty much say what you wish in flash files and it will have no bearing on your SEO. But what about if you have information that might cause conflict with your optimisation?

What i mean by this is that the content of your site might be aimed towards a certain phrase, but you still want to mention a different service on your flash, will this water down your seo? Will it effect your ranking? Most probably not, As most optimizers know the current algorithm focuses various aspects of a site meaning a slight addition piece of text will not effect a listing.

Writing for your Social Media Profiles

Write in the first person.
On your website, bios can be in the third person (and probably should be unless you’re a one-person shop), but on social media profiles, it’s supposed to be you writing about yourself. If you have an assistant do it, that’s just a technicality – the profile should still be written in first person singular.

Be personable.
Everyone has their own limits as to just how much personal information they want to disclose, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. What I am referring to is to write your profiles in a conversational style. This isn’t your formal resume, even on LinkedIn. This is potentially your first conversation with somebody. If you are upbeat and engaging, people are more likely to want to connect with you than if your profile is just a list of facts with no personal context. Check your spelling, of course, but don’t feel bound by the writing rules you learned in school – write it like you would say it if you were talking to them in person.

Tell what you have to give, not just what you have to sell.
What expertise do you have that you are willing to freely share (business-related or not)? Are you willing to meet people in person? Review people’s web sites? Make introductions within a particular industry? Let people know.

10 Easy Steps to Creating Headlines People Will Read

Learn how to make your marketing headlines shine with these 10 simple steps.

Do your headlines lack “oomph”?

Headlines are what motivate a reader to look at the rest of the copy. Thus, headlines demand more attention and more energy than other forms of print copy.

So what do profitable headlines look like? They grab the reader’s attention, fix a problem or deliver them something they desire. Here are some tips for building headlines that work:

1. Give them a number
Just as I did here. A number represents a clear message that will be easy to read and easy to follow.

2. Motivate to take action
Give them a call to action and give a sense of urgency.

Examples:
Don’t Miss Out! Call Now!I’ll Only Help 100, So Act Now!

3. Speak to their emotions
Emotions alone can persuade someone to take out their credit card. If you’re headline is strong enough, it will lead them to read more, which will hopefully ultimately lead to the “I really want that!”

Examples:
Make Memories to Last a LifetimeHow to Make a Difference in Your Community

4. Minimize risk
This is giving them the encouragement to give you a try, while also overcoming possible objections they may have.

Examples:
No Obligation to Try!We’ll Buy it Back From You if You’re Not Satisfied!

5. Tell them the benefit
Readers need to notice your headline to begin with, and then they will want to know what’s in it for them. Being clear about the advantage should get that point across.

Examples:
How to Double Your Site Traffic Now!How You Can Make Real Money in the Stock Market

6. Be the fixer-upper
We all have things we would like to change about ourselves or have things we would like to have. Show readers in the headline you are here to provide the solution.

Examples:
Drive a Car YOU Can Be Proud OfIt’s Time You Took the Vacation You Deserve
Pointing out what their problem or fault is can be another effective way of using this technique.

Examples:
Get Rid of Bad Skin Once and For All Stop Worrying About Your House Not Being Secure

7. Tell them a secret
We are all naturally curious and want to know something others may not know.

Examples:
The Secrets to Selling SuccessLearn the Secrets of Looking Younger

8. Give away a freebie
It will need to be of value to the customer of course, but offering something free will give them the opportunity to see what you’re all about.

Examples:
Act Now and Get Our Free Report!Free Guide on How to Be Promoted in 30 Days

9. Speak in their language
Avoid using jargon. You want to keep it simple and use words your customer will understand. If a word would need to be explained to most people, delete it.

Examples:
What Everyone Should Know About Setting Up a WebsiteSell Your Stocks While the Time is Right

10. Don’t forget spell-check!
No matter how many spelling bees you won as a kid, do yourself a favor and don’t forgo using spell-check. I once saw a sign on a shop that said, “Bussiness For Sale.” Although a different form of marketing, the question remains the same: would you buy from him?

Ways To Get Customers' E-mail Addresses

If you're like most small-business owners, you need a generous supply of potential customers' names and e-mail addresses to effectively market your offerings online.

The good news is you don't have to deceive or spam people into getting them. The bad news is that too many others have already taken that route, giving online marketing a shady reputation.
Unlike the offline world, where consumers get junk mail daily and simply toss it into the recycling bin, unwanted e-mail messages offend people and trigger nasty
replies. People are more protective than ever of their e-mail addresses.

"Spammers have made it bad for the rest of us," says Derek Scruggs, founder of Escalan.com, a Boulder, Colo.-based marketing consultant. So you shouldn't be one yourself; there are enough already out there.

Scruggs is an expert on permission-based e-mail marketing, and has written a separate article for Microsoft Small Business, "10 rules for successful permission-based e-mail marketing," which I refer to in this article. (See link under "Related Articles.")

So, after following Scruggs' permission-based rules, how do you build your database of names and e-mail addresses? Here are seven tips to consider:

Be upfront: Put an e-mail sign-up box prominently on your home page.

Why not just tell customers what you want? In return, "offer something of value, earn their trust, and build the relationship," says Jeffrey Graham, vice president at Dynamic Logic, a New York-based online research company. The offers could include free tips and advice, news alerts, newsletters and/or new product information. Be creative, but allow people to opt-out of these e-mails anytime they want.Two online retailers that follow this strategy effectively are Health4her.com and BabyCenter.com. The latter site asks prospective mothers simply for their e-mail address and the date their baby is due. With that information, BabyCenter.com is ready to roll — it can offer pregnancy and child-rearing tips as well as cribs, car seats
and other products up until long after the baby is born.Similarly, Health4her.com, which sells health and beauty products for women, can directly reach the consumers who want to be reached, with recipes, health and beauty tips and special product offers. "It has been very successful; we get from 2% to 4% of those visiting our site to sign up," says Louis Jay, Health4her.com president. Putting a sign-up box on your home page, he says, "should be the first thing on anybody's mind when they start an online business."

Make your promotions
and special offers worth the click. Contests for cash prizes or free trips will always attract lots of sign-ups, whether the offers are made through banner or e-mail newsletter ads. Make the offers worth the trouble. Yet also know that the jury is still out on the effectiveness of this strategy, because those signing up are often not long-term customers. Still, an incentive-based offer is a way to gather hundreds of names and e-mail addresses, which are especially viable if your site is frequented primarily by your target customers -- such as adult
women for Health4her.com. "We give them a chance to win something, like a free cruise," Jay says. "It's a way to gather names and build relationships."

If you rent lists of consumer names, be forthright about it.
I am talking here about marketing or industry lists where consumers have given their consent -- not the many other lists of names obtained deceptively or without the consumer's permission. Scruggs discourages buying even the opted-in lists in his e-marketing rules, though many other online marketers don't. That's because the potential for spamming still exists. Not every consumer who agreed to sign up for the particular list you bought will remember doing so, and certainly won't know where or how far his or her name is being spread. Complaints are all but guaranteed.If you abide by this risky practice, make sure you indicate in your e-mails that you obtained a consumer's name from a complementary list and that you offer products and services you believe he or she would want to know about. "If you are not upfront with them about why they are getting your message, you're going to have a bad relationship," Scruggs says. One other note: The effectiveness of obtaining customers this way is also dubious. Your homegrown lists are a more solid investment, says Graham.

Put ads and links in specialized e-mail newsletters.
What newsletters reach the audience your business wants to reach? By targeting your ads and promotions in specialized e-mail newsletters, you may get more promising sign-ups. "It builds credibility for you and your business," says Debbie Weil, a Washington, D.C.-based e-mail marketing consultant.

Article taken from here.

Importance of Outbound Links

You probably spend a lot of time collecting links from other sites. If not, you should be! Those inbound links are important because they affect your site's search engine rank and bring in new human visitors.

However, you shouldn't ignore the importance of your site's outbound links. A number of quality outbound links from a Web page can also increase search rank because they indicate that the site is an "authority" on a particular topic.

Links To Internal Pages

Outbound links can link to pages within your site (think navigation!) or to external Web sites.
Linking to different pages or sections within the same site is often referred to as "cross linking" and we'll use that term here to differentiate between outbound links to pages within the same site and outbound links that go to different Web sites entirely.

It's a good idea to include the main navigation menu on every page except very specific pages like shopping cart checkout pages. The navigation menu helps keep the visitor oriented and maintains a consistent look and feel throughout the site.

But a navigation menu is just one way to crosslink pages in your site. Other methods include:

• Alternate text links at the bottom of every page. These are necessary if your navigation menu is image-based or designed using JavaScript or Flash. They're also useful on pages that contain a lot of content because visitors can select a different page without scrolling back up to the main menu.
  
• Text links within page content. These allow visitors to immediately get more information about the particular subject. Make sure the links stand out from surrounding content: use CSS to highlight links if you decide to remove the underlining. Also include a TITLE attribute to further describe the link's destination.
• Obvious link to your site map. On very large or complex sites, a text-based site map is a great way for visitors to find what they're looking for. Search engine spiders love site maps too because they make site indexing easier.
  
  Your goal with all these cross links is to give visitors a sense of what's available on the site and help them access content quickly. It's akin to placing large traffic signs at a busy intersection. People can see all their options and easily select the best route to their destination.
  
  When search engine spiders travel through your site, they also like these intersection pages and tend to rank pages higher if they contain a large number of both inbound and outbound links. Every page should always contain links to your most important site sections and pages.
  
  External Outbound Links
  
  Some webmasters cluster all their external links on a single page?and with good reason. You think: "I have a visitor happily cruising through my site content. Why would I include a link that sends him away?"
  
  You don't want to do that of course! But there are ways to keep your site up in visitors' browsers even while they look at your external links:
• 
  Use the TARGET attribute to open the link inside a new browser window. The syntax is simple:
  External Link
  
  Get more information about the TARGET attribute in our February 2001 Webmaster Tip: "Hit the Right TARGET With Your Links."
  
• Use JavaScript to open a new window. This isn't as reliable as a basic HTML link because many people now use pop-up blockers. JavaScript also causes problems with some assistive technologies like screen readers, so your page could have accessibility issues.
  
  Get more information about how to use JavaScript to open and customize browser windows in our April 2001 Webmaster Tip: Put Your Window Where You Want It.
  

It's important to remember that relevant external links don't really send visitors away; instead the give visitors access to valuable information. The best reason to include external links is because they contain content that enhances your own site's content.

For instance, imagine you have a specific page whose text content highlights the cat shows where your award-winning Maine Coon cats have received recognition. You'd want to link to the Web sites of those cat shows and also to any news articles about those shows. That does send visitors away from your site, but they're getting more information about your business. That external content validates your information, increases the perceived trustworthiness of your business, and helps turns visitors into customers.

If you buried those links on a "Links" page, then comparatively few visitors would find them and wouldn't view them in context if they did. You'd lose the opportunity to highlight your cattery's prominent place among professional breeders.

In addition, when you give an external site a prominent link, the site is more likely to reciprocate?even if it's a larger, more popular site than yours. It's a technique that helps your visitors, the sites you link to, and your own link popularity and search engine rank.

Avoid Broken Internal Or External Links!

Broken links frustrate visitors and make your site look unprofessional. Keeping track of external links can be pretty difficult because most webmasters don't think to check their backlinks and notify linking sites when page addresses change.