This article can be used if you are a web designer new or old, or if you want an idea of the things you should or shouldn't be asking your web designer to place on your website. Firstly, you have a site because its convenient, quick, easy, maneuverable and you can get a lot of use out of it right? Plus it's ultimately a "picture" of you. Since people can't visually see you, the website speaks for you. It doesn't really seem to matter if you have the best product known to man, if the website your running is poorly designed, you won't be able to even sell one item because, visitors will be driven off by the horrible design!
When people talk about good design, they aren't only talking about it in a graphical sense. They are talking about an over all sense of design such as interface, layout, accessibility, user-friendly, colors, etc. Listed below I have noted some features of some of the worst designs I have come across over the years. And this isn't just Kristi's Worst Of, these features are on a lot of other people's lists as well.. so take heed! Listen up and pay attention, you could very well have some of the features on your site right now! Oh the humanity!
Font -
Your font on your site should be legible and sized correctly. Don't make it so big that it literally makes people cross-eyed, but also don't make it so small that people need to get out their magnifying glass! There is a happy medium with font. If you can't pick a good font face or size, ask a friend, they will be more than willing to tell you the truth. Just don't ask a loved one like a girlfriend or mom, chances are they will lie!
Pop-Ups -
In a lot of cases I'll let this go because I understand this is a scheme to either make you money, or a way to make me want to join your list. But keep the pop-ups to a minimum and please make sure they aren't "adult" pop-ups. The last thing I need nor want is to be on a site about flowers, all intent on concentrating on the screen, when *POP* an adult site comes out from no where! Not good! Not PG! Not professional at all! Also, make sure if possible to set your "pop-ups" on a timer. Sites like aweber will allow you to send X amount of pop-ups to the same visitor X amount of time for X amount of days. Make good use of this option.
Background Music -
There is an exception to every rule. Most people say nay to background music I say yay as long as it follows these stipulations; No "fairyland" or "fairytale" music. That is just annoying. No rock n roll, head banging, screaming music. If you are going to have music on your site, make sure its "calming" music. No I'm not talking about elevator music! I'm just talking about instrumental, soft, calming music. Or if you want to take the characteristic of your personality, and do a little ditty, that's cool too. Try some low energy, soothing techno/dance music. Just make sure it's tasteful!
In concluding this article, let me remind you that as a webmaster your job is to make sure your website does what it's meant to do effectively. Don't let some minor mistakes stop your site from functioning optimally!
Open New Web Page
Your need to take a serious note of this. Your present Internet marketing strategies need to re-assessed. Know that most of the big gurus are quietly focusing on Web Marketing 2.0 and they know "something deeply beneficial" to online marketers is lurking behind it. And they are at work in perfecting their new Web 2.0 Marketing Plan just to be in the race.
But the intriguing question is,
What is Web 2.0 Marketing and Social Media Marketing and how to craft a result oriented Web 2.0 marketing plan?
Marketing that we are all used to is a totally controlled and organized process! Every step is planned ahead and the general public do not figure anywhere once it comes to execution.
But with the arrival of Web Marketing 2.0, this controlled process is threatened as the power shifts to the consumer. The interactive ability among the customers to propagate mass opinions can have an impact on the future of a product!
Simply put, Web Marketing 2.0 is all about establishing contact with your prospects through,
* Social Bookmarking. For e.g. websites like del.icio.us, furl
* Blogging with sites like Wordpress, Blogger etc
* Viral marketing where word of mouth and sharing of materials ultimately results in more traffic
* Effective use of Social Media sites like flickr, picasa, YouTube where Photos & Video are shared
* Social Networking websites like MySpace
* Setting up RSS feeds of your contents
* Interactive online forums
And many such new and fast systems...
Making our websites more interactive with the site visitors is Web Marketing 2.0, where they can add content, air opinions and the like. Its about a site being simple and plain where visitors can interact and collaborate with others through simple interfaces. Its about that indefinable addictive 'Halo' effect beaming from your site!
Social Media Marketing also facilitates in building YOU-the-Brand! It enables you to make your individual presence felt through Web 2.0 sites which has the in built ability to elevate your business to a higher scale way beyond traditional methods!
And its time to consider these new emerging customer driven marketing arena for your own future!
Let's explore a few of them waiting to be tapped in the Web 2.0 Marketing plane. They are there and they do exist, once you realize the potential of these Web Marketing 2.0 methods. No matter what online business you have now!
1. Build Your Individual Brand Constantly: YOU have the option of building your personal brand with Web 2.0 Marketing technologies. They empowers you to create a group of exclusive communities, which you can effectively use as a platform for viral marketing. Be the starter to propagate and speed up the process. The best form of publicity ever found is word of mouth publicity!
2. Swiftly To Dart Your Messages To The Right Target Group: Fuse content from different information sources by leveraging the expertise of your group or community and distribute new knowledge!
3. Team Up With Others & Release Extra Profit Streams: Social Media Marketing facilitates person-to-person contact that can be used as an extremely potent lead generation weapon and an affiliate building tool for expansion of your business.
4. Fast Way To Build Your Online Credibility: Once you are sold, your companies is sold. And once your company is sold, your product is sold! Web 2.0 Marketing let you do exactly that - becoming the a known expert in your sphere.
5. Show-Up At The Right Places At The Right Time: As an Internet marketer, you know the value of the initial advantage over others. You must be there where your target group assembles before your competitor get a whiff of it. Web Marketing 2.0 empowers you to do exactly that!
6. Attract Search Engine Traffic: These new Web 2.0 sites somehow enjoy high search engine rankings. Setting up back links from these high PR Web 2.0 sites to your site can potentially help you get higher page PR's. More over, you are also setting your website for search engines to crawl your web site regularly.
7. Take Advantage of Other's Social Networks: Leverage the time and money of your contacts for mutually beneficial actions. This can put you in the seat of no-cost marketer who does not spend money on advertising.
8. Dip Into The Multimedia Wave: YouTube have started it and many video-sharing sites have sprung up and they are free. Create short videos and upload them! The marketing effect of videos and audios are proved to be ten times more! Use them to your advantage.
9. Be The Great Guy/Girl Around: Interesting, unique and riveting material will always be consumed. Social Media Marketing enables your visitors to bookmark them and share them on/or offline. From then on, viral marketing effect takes on. Interesting ideas, content, videos, audios and your products gets spread all over the Internet giving you residual profits for years.
To sum up, with Web 2.0 Marketing you can think creatively, interact with your target group in real-time and then arrive at on good marketing choices. The new Web Marketing 2.0 scenario offers much more options than the earlier Web 1.0 methods.
In any case, Our responses to the fast changing nature of the Internet decides our future in a Internet based business.
Both Kristi Ambrose & S. Kumar are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Kristi Ambrose has sinced written about articles on various topics from Diamonds, Consumer and Guide Guitar. This author is a HUGE fan of New York Website Designer. Kristi Ambrose's top article generates over 1220000 views. Bookmark Kristi Ambrose to your Favourites.
S. Kumar has sinced written about articles on various topics from Web Development, Internet Marketing. S. Kumar is the webmaster of Learnhomebusiness.com. Visit his ". S. Kumar's top article generates over 2400 views. Bookmark S. Kumar to your Favourites.
Anyone Work From Home This is not something you want to do learn from my mistakes and everyone elses and really plan ahead
