Usually we source suppliers for our business either based upon recommendation or from a client/existing supplier or networking associate; however this time no suitable recommendations were forthcoming. So like many companies looking for huddersfield web designers, new suppliers, in my quest I turned to the web.

A quick google search brought up loads of companies on page one that looked like they may be able to help us and like most people, I immediately went to the top 5 or so websites that were listed in the results.

At this stage of this lesson I’d like to first of all congratulate these companies “for getting their sites placed within the first 5 positions of Google’s search results for my chosen keywords. Your Leeds web designers and search engine marketing techniques have worked and I am a potential customer with money burning a hole in my pocket”.

But oh dear!

The first site I went to, didn’t work in my browser (Fire Fox) so that was the end of that visit.

The second site looked like it had been built by a 10 year old using Microsoft’s Paint application. It did not fill me with a sense of comfort or professionalism and as a result I had a feeling the company was a back-bedroom set up (it might not have been but that was the feeling I got from their website). So again, visit aborted.

The third site had a colour scheme and font arrangement that made my eyes hurt. I’m outta here!

The fourth site whilst acceptable in its look and feel had no information about the company or how to contact them above

and beyond a feedback form. We’re not in the habit of dealing with companies we can’t trace to a real-world location. So that was the end of that visit.

The fifth site whist not entirely to my design tastes, was easy to navigate, and had samples of their products and displayed clear contact and company information including a telephone number. They’d obviously invested well in their website and I should imagine because of this, they get a significantly larger number of en quiries than the 4 companies who were listed above them in Google’s SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).

I gave them a call and their local rep is coming out to see us next week.

So there’s today’s lesson.

If you intend to make use of the web as a tangible method of marketing your business, approach the task seriously and invest well in your website. Make sure the site functions well, is pleasant and attractive to use and displays clear contact information and calls to action making it easy for the potential customer to make an en query.

To do otherwise will do you more harm than good and will mean your competitor; with a better website, is likely to get all your business.

If you have an existing website that you feel let’s your company down and boosts business for your competitors. Give us a call to discuss how we can turn this situation around for your business.

Keyclicks is a Complete Creative Package, Design Print, Web and Promotion agency Based near Leeds, West Yorkshire in the UK: we are a team of highly experienced web development, marketing and graphic design professionals that offer creative and innovative design and marketing solutions for both print and web. Leeds Web Design Firm, Leeds Web Development, Leeds marketing Agency.

1. Site design is the first thing a prospective customer sees!! I have seen some horrible designs for hosting companies. If you think putting some text, links and a logo on a page is enough, you will likely fail before you even realize. You will also notice a lot of companies have a generic template that can be found online at template monster or any other temple site. Avoid these. It is very hard to develop a company image when you look like 134,000 other hosting companies. I suggest put a bit of effort and creativity into a well designed “professional” looking home page for your company. The bottom line is a new customer will not even consider you as their host if they feel you are an armature no matter how great or cheap your packages are.

2. Develop your website as a total package to its clients. Don’t just present your hosting packages and leave it at that. Offer tutorials, articles, support forums etc. These additional services not only provide additional content for you clients, but if developed correctly will bring additional traffic to your site which will potentially lead to more sales.

3 You MUST understand how search engines work. Over 90% of your business will likely come directly from search engine results. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to optimize your site for search engines. You could have the greatest hosting plan in the entire world,

but if no one knows about it, then it’s useless. Do a search on Google for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You will find tons of great information on how to create a website that is both user friendly and search engine friendly. There are also a countless number of companies out there who offer SEO services. Just be cautious of their offers and do your research first

3. Find your niche. The hosting business as a whole is a huge industry which is very competitive. Your best chance at success is to simply find a market and develop your business to cater to that specific niche. An excellent example of this is http://elite-hosts.org/ who offer hosting and development to those who operate online forums.

Maybe in the early 90’s the idea of “if you build it they will come” might have been true. But in the year 2005 the internet is a far more competitive and complex. place To be successful today, you have to develop a business plan which works from all angles. If you can develop a hosting company which has a professional design, some extra content, search engine friendly and which targets a specific niche, you will have a far greater chance at success Of course there are many other factors to consider as well, but if you can master these four, everything else should fall into place.

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Outline of Course

1. Introduction to internet

2. Internet technology and protocols

3. Word wide web

4. Browsers

5. Electronic mail

6. File Transfer protocol

7. Telnet

8. User and internet relay chat

9. Web publishing

10. HTML

11. Introduction to interactivity

12. Multimedia and graphics

13. Internet management and security issues

Objective of course

Internet, Growth of internet, owners of the internet, Anatomy of internet ARPANET and internet, history of the word wide web

Basic internet terminology, Net etiquette

Internet Applications-commerce on the internet, Governance on the internet Impact of internet on society-crime on/ through the internet

What is internet?

It is a collection of networks-a network of networks-computers sharing information via a common set of networking and software protocols.

History and overview of the internet

In the 60s, the U.S military introduced the concept of inter-network to ensure that communications location were attacked, the other locations would still be able to communicate with each other. With the introductions of this concept, the U.S. Department of Defense made clear their interest in using networks. At the time the internet was a new concept, the U.S military funded the research on networking using various technologies through the Advanced Research projects Agency (ARPA).

What is ARPANET?

In the 70s,

ARPA had a few networks and one of their projects was a WAN wide Area Network-a digital communications system which interconnects various sites and user terminals) called ARPANET. The ARPANET, regarded as the backbone network that linked researchers, was being used by universities and research institutes. Another network called the MILnet was created to look after military communications. Each of the pools of networks could communicate with each other.

However. Communication with computers in different pools posed a problem. Researchers used the ARPANET as a conventional WAN that moves data among sites and a research tool that experiments with new network software and applications .An important idea in the ARPA research was to connect LANs (a digital communication system which interconnects computers within a limited geographical area) and WANs. This idea was called the inter-networking, internet in short. Since major contributions came form california Bob khan and Vinton Cerf, they are referred to as the. Fathers of the internet,’

Who owns the internet?

No one actually owns the internet, and no single person or organization controls it. More of a concept than a concrete entity, the internet relies on physical intrastate that connects networks. There are many organizations. Corporations, governments, schools, private citizens and service providers that own pieces of infrastructure, but there is no one body that owas it all. There are, however, organizations those oversee and standardize what happens on internet and assign IP addresses and domain names,

Why Do You Have a Website?

The number one reason magicians have websites is ego. They want to be able to say to people, “You can visit my website at www.bite-me-hard.com.” When the person visits the website they usually see one of two scenarios:

• Brochure Site
• Typical Magician’s Site – See Part 2 of this series for an example.

The brochure site is nicely designed with contact information and a few pictures. These sites usually look nice and clean. The issue is visitor conversion. Many people view the site and move on to another site. They may never return. You have missed out on the opportunity to build a relationship with them. The key element often missing with this kind of site is the ability to capturing the visitor’s name and email address so that follow up direct marketing can be done. The direct marketing closes the sale. It is rare for people to hire magicians as an impulse buy.

The typical magician’s site is wonder to behold. How can one person find so many different ways to use free animated graphics on the home page? It is clear that the magician designing his site learned how to color text, change fonts, and increase font size. All done in the same paragraph! Check out my prior article listed above for a detailed discussion of this topic.

Your website exists to get people to give you their permission. That’s right, their permission. The goal of the website is to get visitors to give you their name and email. Believe it or not this is valuable information that is not given away freely. The website must be structured to induce people to trust you enough to give this information to you.

This is why brochure sites and typical magician’s sites don’t usually work well. If you haven’t built a relationship with the potential client, then it is unlikely they will book your magic show. It is like it was in high school. You can walk up to the prettiest girl in school and say “Do me!” Chances are it won’t be effective. Your website must establish a relationship with potential client and gain her permission. After that you can approach her and say, “Book me!”

Purpose of Permission Marketing

This approach to marketing is called Permission Marketing. It has always been practiced but Seth Godin coined the term with his book by the same name. Buy a copy and Amazon or your local bookstore. The purpose of Permission Marketing is to turn strangers into friends, and friends into clients.

I am not recommending spamming people to get more magic shows. The key elements of Permission Marketing are communications from you are expected, individualized, and interesting to the person. Let,s look at the elements in the context of emails:

1. Expected – People are expecting emails from you because they asked you to send them emails through your subscription form on your website. Always use a double opt in subscription system.
2. Individualized – Every email sent by you should be personalized to the person getting it. I don’t care if you are sending out ten or one thousand emails. Every person should get an email that looks like it was written just for them.
3. Interesting – The subject of every email must be related and relevant to the reason the person gave you’re his permission in the first place. If you entice a person to give his name and email to learn how to use a magic show to create the perfect birthday party, then don’t send emails about a great business opportunity called Amway.

Another important feature of Permission Marketing is that there

are different levels of permission. Permission levels range from spam (no permission) to intravenous (sending products out to customers without him ordering them). As people give you their names and emails you start at the permission scale (just above spam). Your main task is to use your communications and services to move people up the permission scale. While you will never likely get permission to just show and do magic shows uninvited (intravenous), you can build a base of trusting and loyal customers.

Gaining Permission With Your Website

Your website will impact your ability to gain permission from visitors. Two general considerations are content and design. If you have not taken the free Master Course on Selling Services, I strongly encourage you to do so. The course covers the topics of contents and design in more detail. You will find material that you can use on your website right now.

People searching the web are looking for good information. They will trust and reward those who give them the information they seek. Many will give you permission to contact them again. This opens the door to build trust and gain a loyal customer. What kinds of content should the site provide? The simple answer is whatever the person is looking for.

Let’s assume a mother finds your website considering the possibility of hiring a magician for her daughter’s next birthday party. She doesn’t care that you do gospel illusion shows or trade shows. In fact she might be put off by it. If this magician does all of these other things, how important is my daughter’s birthday party going to be? You must view your content from the visitor’s perspective.

Provide content that she can use. For example, you can provide a general guide to hosting a magical birthday party. Let her know if she signs up with her name and email you will send her a detailed step by step guide to hosting the perfect magical birthday party. You could also put magic birthday party invitations on your site personalized to your magic show, but with space for it to be individualized to the child and her birthday party.

With relevant and useful content you will begin to build trust. You will get her to give you her name and email. You provide even better content and increase her trust. You can contact her about how your magic show will make her daughter’s birthday party one to be remembered always. The key to providing content is to over-deliver on the person’s expectations. Remember this:

The design of your site is also important. Your site must be easily navigated. You want visitors to find the information they are seeking quickly and easily. Graphics add to the site but can become clutter if you are not careful. It should have a clean look. Don’t be afraid to use a plain white background. It looks good and text can be easily read. I would avoid reverse colors for text. Light text on dark background can strain the eyes if there is much material there.

An example of this approach is Learn-Great-MagicTricks.com. This new site is still growing. It is clean looking. Information is easily found. The content is useful for people learning to do magic. Within one month, the site was listed in most search engines, had decent rankings, was getting newsletter subscriptions, and most importantly the site was earning money. The point is that this advice works and I use it myself.

Copyright © 2005 J.L. Siefers, All rights reserved.

J.L. Siefers has been performing great magic for years. He has written extensively on many topics in magic. He has shown hundreds of people how to successfully learn to do great magic tricks.

Want to learn to do magic? Click now to get your FREE magic tricks! http://www.Learn-Great-Magic-Tricks.com

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Put it in a simpler way: if you look good, people will like you.

Sounds simple? It is, and it isn’t. Trying to look good at that dinner you and your wife are going to is one thing, but trying to look good for a whole generation of consumers without establishing a personal relationship with each one of them.

Lose the Bullhorn

Can you imagine yourself standing on top of a moving vehicle with a bullhorn, breaking the silence of an afternoon plugging a corner-store grocery you just opened? In a way, the method you’re using to reach out to the public is branding. Those of us in the industry would like to call that method guerilla marketing, and while it’s an effective method of creating localized brand awareness, it’s not exactly the best way of creating the best image for your business.

I mean, think about it—who would trust a grocer who’s disturbing the peace? Well, sort of. They know about you, great. But they’d remember you as that guy who went around town, waking everybody up with your bullhorn and your noisy vehicle.

The Basics of Branding

But to be able to brand yourself well, it’ll do you good to remember the barest essentials involved with brand management. To be able to do this effectively without putting yourself to shame, you need to know the basics of branding. To wit, the basics are the following:

• - Brand name
• - The brand’s identity
• - Approach to brand management

The first two generally answer the basic who and what question. The third in the mix, is a more complex matter, and deserves a section

all its own. For now, let us focus on the brand name and identity.

For most people, the brand name is the brand itself. That’s a common misconception—the brand is the complete identity of a product or trademark, while the brand name is what it says it is: a name. However, along with your logo branding, the brand name is probably the first thing potential consumers will see, so don’t play down the importance of your brand name!

There are three ways of defining the type of brand name you choose for your business:

• - Descriptive brand names are names that sum up what your product does. Take the case of the soda brand Sparkle, or Pop. This is to branding what a direct sell is to sales—it is up front and in your face, so to speak, leaving very little to the imagination.
• - Another direction you can take when coming up with brand names is the associative brand route. This way, you can start off your relationship with potential buyers in what I’d like to call a more conversational note. Take Sony’s Walkman product, for example; this is what it’s like when a product talks to your consumers. The name gives them an image of what they do without telling too much about what they do, and conducts a mental conversation with buyers. By mental conversation, I’m talking about how the brand name attracts the curiosity of the consumer.
• - Finally, the last type of brand naming scheme involves coming up with freestanding names for your product. In essence, while this naming scheme hardly involves the innate purpose of the product, this gives you the leverage to get fully creative with the name and use that as a draw for potential consumers.

The brand name is the most basic, but possibly the most fundamental, element of brand management. Next time, we’ll start discussing corporate branding identity and how to maintain that identity throughout your market.

hours of Phone and email consultation. Orange County web design will make sure that all of your needs in any rates will be met with our high- end Professional Custom Design. We will also make sure that all of your websites are all search engine friendly. You can also avail our services to include E-Commerce and customized Quotes to be included in your web sites, all for reasonable rates! We have also created a better way of copy writing the messages you want to take across the internet. Make the best impression to your clients through the integrity of our copy writers. We even make existing copy write advising for free. Orange County Web Design provides you the best services at very flexible rates because we exist through your success.

Orange County Web Design will give you the outmost services you can ever ask for in web designing. You can count to receive competitive web design rates, outstanding customer service, well- planned and organized web site development, and a follow through to keep you posted until your web site is finished. You can be reassured that we are well experienced in the corporate field and we know that time is very important. But our services do not stop from mere commitments; our firm is made up of top web designers, graphic designers, streaming media professionals, copywriters and search engine consultants. Orange County web design is the one stop web design firm for you. Stop the hassle… Let the experts do what they do best at very flexible rates. Let Orange County Web Design take care of your web designing needs.

1. Not clearly specifying the objectives of your website, or

2. Not making it obvious what your web pages are about.

Usually both of these things are mentioned. This usually stems from the inability to look at your business or products from the prospective customer’s point of view.

Many marketing people confuse their own concerns with those of their potential customers. For instance they think that a sexy manufacturing technique, or the fact that the product uses “materials developed by NASA” will impress their customers. Generally it won’t.

This is the classic mistake of confusing features with benefits. Saying that a vinyl banner is made of 13 oz vinyl is a feature. Saying that it is “virtually tear-proof” is a benefit — namely, that it won’t be ripped off its moorings and blown away by the first

gentle breeze.

Web designers are just like all other business people in this regard. We have a difficult time stepping back from our little projects and looking at them from the perspective of our potential customers.

First and foremost we should realize that people who visit our sites have no idea what our sites are about until we tell them.

So we should tell them. And we should tell them very clearly and quickly. As Vincent Flanders says in Web Pages That Suck

Web design is the reverse of a magic trick. In a magic trick, you show the audience your right hand and perform the trick with your left. In Web design, you tell them where you’re going first — and then go there. People don’t like surprises. It will certainly confuse them and it could make them angry.”

Rick Hendershot is editor and publisher of the Linknet Marketing Resource Library.

Choosing Your Images

Choose site images carefully. Collect simple illustrations or photographs that are in sync with company mission or philosophy. A few select images will have more impact than many images competing for the eye’s attention. Avoid images that are distracting or trendy. Don’t simply use graphics to be cool.

How many photos or images are appropriate? A good rule of thumb is one to two images per web page. Select photos and images as carefully as you select the text, and you’ll be on your way to a better site. The exception to the rule is for sites that market a large amount of products or contain many points of interest, where small thumbnail images may be more appropriate.

Placement of Images on the Page

Do you want the photo or graphic to be the centerpiece? The first thing the eye sees? If so, place it in the central position. If not, maybe the photo or graphic is related to some of the text, and it can be placed nearby this text to accentuate it. Remember, we read from left to right. Some say the left represents the past, the center the present, and the right the future. Content may be organized this way on the page intentionally, to heighten this resonance with the viewer.

Don’t let site images be a distraction or hindrance to understanding. Instead, they should blend well into site content and not be a contrast to the message on the page. Images should not compete with content, they should enhance it.

Image Quality

Images should look as nice and clear as possible. There is an important balance to keep between image file size and quality. Always keep in mind that the file size and dimensions of your images will ultimately control overall page loading time. A slow-loading site will be frustrating to any user. Generally, pages load from

the top down, so it is an important point to remember not to design your pages with large image files that fill the top of each page.

Site Text

It’s important not to overdo the writing on a page. Consider how much the user will read and write site content to capture the typically short attention spans of the viewers. Be succinct, and most importantly: be clear. Write subheads and set them in bold, slightly larger type. Carefully placed subheads allow the casual viewer to scan the content of your site.

Write for Search Engines

Research your clientele, and your targeted audience, and always develop content that sells your products, services, or organization. If you or your organization are lacking the expertise to write good copy, hire a professional writer to do the job.

Some web specific writing techniques are important. Try to use select keywords on each page that will lead new users to consider your business or services. Write this text directly into your copy. The first 20 words of your web site text should be what you want people to see in search engine results as a summary of your site.

Site Organization

To simplify the user’s experience, set your site up so that he can get to the intended location easily with no more than three clicks. The overall design of your site must be clear and intuitive so the user can navigate the content easily. If you must use symbols to direct the reader, always attach some explanatory text for the user, so they know where clicking the symbol will take them.

These are just a few of the basics of effective and clear web design. These tips provide ways to guide the user around your site, rather than frustrate them. With site clarity and ease of use, your clients and prospects are educated about your products and services, and have more reason to purchase them.

About The Author

Edward Robirds is a success-driven artist and interactive media developer based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since 1996, Edward has been building business relationships with several association and commercial clients around the world. Founder of www.DreamseaArtworks.com, Edward uses his artistic skills, expertise and passion to design and develop web sites, interactive CD-ROMs, and print media for his clients.

mail@dreamseaartworks.com

Research on web usability shows that you only have a few seconds to catch the attention of your website visitors. One of the most important ways to do this is through your opening headline.

Your headline’s main purpose is to attract attention and generate enough interest so that your visitors keep reading. It’s a first step in a process where your goal is to eventually convince them to take action on your offer.

Here are a few tips for creating powerful headlines:

Writing attention-grabbing headlines can be challenging as there are many components to consider if they are to be successful.

You might want to do some reading in this area or hire someone to help you create your headline. Your headline can make all the difference in determining whether your website is drawing, as opposed to repelling, potential clients and customers.

© Juliet Austin, 2005

Bio of Author

Juliet Austin is a Marketing Coach, Consultant and Copywriter who assists coaches, therapists, alternative health professionals, and socially responsible businesses in marketing their businesses. She helps her clients overcome resistances to marketing, learn no or low-cost marketing strategies, create compelling promotional materials, and write attention-grabbing website copy.

Sign-up for Juliet’s free, ezine, Enlightened Marketing at: http://www.julietaustin.com or visit one of her marketing blogs: Marketing a Private Practice or Website Design and Promotion

The author grants permission to reprint this article so long as the copyright and by- line remain intact. Informing her of where the article will be published would also be appreciated.

Suddenly I wake up in a cold sweat. What happened. Oh, then I realize: it was just a nightmare.

O.k., I’m not crazy, and no I haven’t had this dream before. But think about this: what would you do if you came to a site littered with either tons of different colors, loud pinks, purples, greens and reds mixed incoherently, or more animations and graphics than the rods and cones of your inner eye can possibly absorb? If your like me I simply go “click, bye-bye”.

Our visual stimulus is ever more so important on the web than almost anywhere else. Most definitely the internet is about information. But, that information is shown graphically. So, if you want to keep people at your site, first appeal to their visual stimulus.

There are a few guidelines that you should adhere to when designing your site, following known research results on colors that elicit certain psychological responses people. The bottom line is that it is hard enough to market on the internet today, why make it harder by bugging your visitors.

(1) Colors and Their Effect: I prefer blue and white. In general blue seems to elicit a sense of trust and white a sense of purity. Gold, on the other hand is the color of wealth and prosperity, something we are all working towards. So, with respect to general internet marketing, these colors tend to work the best. They are easy on the eyes and don’t strike up a sense of danger, such as with the color red. Of course, the colors also depend on purpose of your site. If selling baby items, pink, which represents femininity, and baby blue, representing weakness may work quite well. It depends in part on site content. A high tech site selling electronic components may do better with greys, silvers, and black.

(2) Animations and Banners:

Animations are nice, but can take time to load and be distracting. Use them to focus the attention of a visitor. Place them at a single page location, at the center or all at the left side for instance. If you use more than one and they are scattered all over the page, where can you expect your eyes to focus. Yep, you heard right – click, bye, bye.

Banners can also give you problems if there are two many and not well organized. Pay attention to the color design to ensure that it matches your site. Remember, no eye sores here. Overall, banner are known not to have the highest clickthrough rates.

(3) Flash Media: Flash media animations are steadily gaining popularity and many sites are tailoring their start-up page to include large flash animations. Beware. In online home businesses, your primary purpose is content. Only fit in flash where it is strictly meant to guide the visual stimulus to a part of your site. I know, I know, it does look cool. But cool doesn’t and never will build sales out of potential prospects.

A few further resources that are of particular interest here are

(1) http://www.internet-marketing-research.net,

(2) http://www.infoplease.com/spot/colors1.html,

(3) http://psychology.about.com/library/weekly/aa031501a.htm.

As a good rule of thumb, if it hurts your eyes, it probably hurts others as well. Keep it simple, professional, easy to look at with color used just in the right place to highlight your content. Content is what will build your home based business. Elicit a visual response from your visitors to drive them to your content.

About The Author

Dan J. Fry is an independent researcher and owner of e-Kinetic.com, a site devoted to providing resources for small budget home businesses. He has a PhD in Physics, two daughters and two cats. Subscribe to his free E-Zine on home business resources at e-kinetic@GetResponse.com or by visiting his Home Based Business site.

comp@e-kinetic.com