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Digg it UP - How to Build a Business Website
The Internet can be a scary place for those looking for a home-based business opportunity. The fear of not connecting personally with others is one concern and many people have been “taken” by online scams in their search for a legitimate business and are fearful to take any more risks. One way to overcome fears such as these is to market your online business locally. By simply offering the person a contact that they can speak to and possibly even meet face to face you will making the statement that your business is legitimate and trustworthy.It is effective to market your online business locally primarily because potential customers and business recruits prefer to have the option of speaking with the business owner face to face. By attracting customers locally, you can maximize the opportunities to meet with them. You will no longer be that “someone they found online,” but someone t
WEBSITE PLANNING
Before starting to build your website you should first develop a plan in line with your online objectives, target audience and resources. You can write your plan thoroughly as a storyboard. A storyboard is something similar to a flowchart of all the website components you deem necessary. Once you have a clear picture of what you are going to build, sit with your developers and create a technical scope of the project. This is absolutely necessary! In most of the cases your entrepreneurial vision will differ drastically with the way a programmer look into your requirement.
While working on your scope or even after publishing your website bear in mind the following crucial aspects of effective websites:
Page loading time In the euphoria of having a great slick website, often, we use images that make t
A listing of ten great ways to reinforce your profits.1. Anticipate any objections your visitors may have about your product offer. You must research your target audience's needs and wants.2. Remember not to use outrageous or unbelievable claims in your ad copy. People are too savvy online and won't believe you.3. Pick a good name for your business and product. Your names should be memorable and describe the kind of product your offering.4. Solve your customer complaints by being quick and friendly. The faster you respond, the more your customers feel you care about them.5. Never think your customers are satisfied with their purchase. You should be constantly finding new ways to better your product and service.6. Market yourself, as well as your product. You could write articles, ebooks, do free consulting, do speaking engagements, etc.A recent report done by Yankee Group, a Boston-based market research company, states that at the end of 2004 around 34 percent of small and medium sized businesses in North America are selling goods and services on the Internet and another 25 percent is planning to do so within next 12 months. Online sales in the United States represented 8.4 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product in 2004. This figure is increasingly rising. This means, if your company is not paying serious attention to this vital channel of sales and marketing, you are simply missing the boat.
In its basic form a website is a bundle of pages full of texts, graphics and other electronic files published on the Internet for people to view. How you organize your website depends totally on your online goals. Websites are built for various purposes. You can use a website as a sales point, a marketing channel, a corporate image building tool, a branding channel, an information center, a CRM center, a product launching center, and for number of other reasons. When you plan to build a website, you should base your online strategy keeping in mind two things: your online objectives and your potential audience.
SOME OF THE MOST COMMON TYPES OF CORPORATE WEBSITES ARE:
Information providing sites
Most of today’s sites fall in this category. The simplest of them are actually mere reflection of offline corporate brochures.
Promoting company
The idea behind some of information-driven sites is to give maximum information related to the company. A holding company, for example, may prefer to have a site like this. These sites usually include: company history, company related news, mission statement, profiles of key executives, a good FAQ section, etc. Graphics are used in these sites only to accentuate the text information. However, the sites may include video and FLASH presentation as well.
Promoting products or services
A pharmaceutical company to promote its recently launched medicine may develop a website surrounding the product. The sole purpose of this type of sites is to create awareness of specific products or services.
Creating brand awareness
A manufacturing company that sells its products exclusively through distributing channel may develop a website to provide ultimate information on the products and create brand. These sites complement company’s offline promotional efforts and always built in consistence with other commercials.
E-commerce
Online sales are done through the e-commerce sites. Main characteristics of an e-commerce site include:
1. Detail products or services information with pictures and sometimes with multimedia presentations, drawings, charts, etc.
2. Shopping cart – so that the buyer can select one or several items to purchase.
3. Payment gateway – so that the buyer can make payments for the products or services purchased.
Corporate portals
A Website that offers a broad range of resources and services such as email, forums, company pertinent news & articles, members only area, etc. is generally called a portal. Portals are intended to be the gateway for their respective audience.
B2B exchange
Business to Business Exchange is an online platform where buyers and sellers come to communicate, collaborate and make business transactions. The main objective of a B2B Exchange is to create a venue, filled with features that allow members to efficiently conduct business processes through the Internet. A private B2B exchange is a corporate portal with a marketplace. It is designed to provide services to the company’s own buyers, sellers and workforce.
WEBSITE PLANNING
Before starting to build your website you should first develop a plan in line with your online objectives, target audience and resources. You can write your plan thoroughly as a storyboard. A storyboard is something similar to a flowchart of all the website components you deem necessary. Once you have a clear picture of what you are going to build, sit with your developers and create a technical scope of the project. This is absolutely necessary! In most of the cases your entrepreneurial vision will differ drastically with the way a programmer look into your requirement.
While working on your scope or even after publishing your website bear in mind the following crucial aspects of effective websites:
Page loading time In the euphoria of having a great slick website, often, we use images that make t
ARE YOU LOL?Dear Fred and Lyna,I have been sending my blogs out and participating in some business forums and people are always using these abbreviations. I also see these on instant messages that I get. For example, I get the following all the time: LOL BRB DQMOT IDK…just to name a few..Can you help me understand this new internet language.Fred: I’m LOL(laughing out Loud) is a common term that is used all the time in emails, IM(Instant messages) and on the forums. It is like learning a new language.Lyna: I know when I first started see these terms I had to ask you what the heck they meant.Fred: The scary thing is that I now what they mean. Does that mean I am spending too much time on the internet.Lyna: You don’t want me to go there, Fred. But let’s get back to what all these acronyms meanFred: Let’s first take a look at the ones you m
SOME OF THE MOST COMMON TYPES OF CORPORATE WEBSITES ARE:
Information providing sites
Most of today’s sites fall in this category. The simplest of them are actually mere reflection of offline corporate brochures.
Promoting company
The idea behind some of information-driven sites is to give maximum information related to the company. A holding company, for example, may prefer to have a site like this. These sites usually include: company history, company related news, mission statement, profiles of key executives, a good FAQ section, etc. Graphics are used in these sites only to accentuate the text information. However, the sites may include video and FLASH presentation as well.
Promoting products or services
A pharmaceutical company to promote its recently launched medicine may develop a website surrounding the product. The sole purpose of this type of sites is to create awareness of specific products or services.
Creating brand awareness
A manufacturing company that sells its products exclusively through distributing channel may develop a website to provide ultimate information on the products and create brand. These sites complement company’s offline promotional efforts and always built in consistence with other commercials.
E-commerce
Online sales are done through the e-commerce sites. Main characteristics of an e-commerce site include:
1. Detail products or services information with pictures and sometimes with multimedia presentations, drawings, charts, etc.
2. Shopping cart – so that the buyer can select one or several items to purchase.
3. Payment gateway – so that the buyer can make payments for the products or services purchased.
Corporate portals
A Website that offers a broad range of resources and services such as email, forums, company pertinent news & articles, members only area, etc. is generally called a portal. Portals are intended to be the gateway for their respective audience.
B2B exchange
Business to Business Exchange is an online platform where buyers and sellers come to communicate, collaborate and make business transactions. The main objective of a B2B Exchange is to create a venue, filled with features that allow members to efficiently conduct business processes through the Internet. A private B2B exchange is a corporate portal with a marketplace. It is designed to provide services to the company’s own buyers, sellers and workforce.
WEBSITE PLANNING
Before starting to build your website you should first develop a plan in line with your online objectives, target audience and resources. You can write your plan thoroughly as a storyboard. A storyboard is something similar to a flowchart of all the website components you deem necessary. Once you have a clear picture of what you are going to build, sit with your developers and create a technical scope of the project. This is absolutely necessary! In most of the cases your entrepreneurial vision will differ drastically with the way a programmer look into your requirement.
While working on your scope or even after publishing your website bear in mind the following crucial aspects of effective websites:
Page loading time In the euphoria of having a great slick website, often, we use images that make t
There are several ways to set up your own radio station. It depends on how serious you are about it. The single most important thing you should know before you get started is why would you need to start your own radio station?Maybe, it's because you are a DJ or you have a band and want to reach an audience with your songs. Maybe, you have a huge collection of rock music and want to share it with the world. Maybe you are a member of club and want to make money by broadcasting a certain type of music along with commercials. Maybe you are a candidate and want to spread the word about your nomination and your speeches. Or maybe you are just person who is passionate about radio stations and always wanted to start your own FM radio station. Whatever the case, you need to know what you are doing.Here are the basics of setting up a new radio station in a nutshell.First yo
Promoting products or services
A pharmaceutical company to promote its recently launched medicine may develop a website surrounding the product. The sole purpose of this type of sites is to create awareness of specific products or services.
Creating brand awareness
A manufacturing company that sells its products exclusively through distributing channel may develop a website to provide ultimate information on the products and create brand. These sites complement company’s offline promotional efforts and always built in consistence with other commercials.
E-commerce
Online sales are done through the e-commerce sites. Main characteristics of an e-commerce site include:
1. Detail products or services information with pictures and sometimes with multimedia presentations, drawings, charts, etc.
2. Shopping cart – so that the buyer can select one or several items to purchase.
3. Payment gateway – so that the buyer can make payments for the products or services purchased.
Corporate portals
A Website that offers a broad range of resources and services such as email, forums, company pertinent news & articles, members only area, etc. is generally called a portal. Portals are intended to be the gateway for their respective audience.
B2B exchange
Business to Business Exchange is an online platform where buyers and sellers come to communicate, collaborate and make business transactions. The main objective of a B2B Exchange is to create a venue, filled with features that allow members to efficiently conduct business processes through the Internet. A private B2B exchange is a corporate portal with a marketplace. It is designed to provide services to the company’s own buyers, sellers and workforce.
WEBSITE PLANNING
Before starting to build your website you should first develop a plan in line with your online objectives, target audience and resources. You can write your plan thoroughly as a storyboard. A storyboard is something similar to a flowchart of all the website components you deem necessary. Once you have a clear picture of what you are going to build, sit with your developers and create a technical scope of the project. This is absolutely necessary! In most of the cases your entrepreneurial vision will differ drastically with the way a programmer look into your requirement.
While working on your scope or even after publishing your website bear in mind the following crucial aspects of effective websites:
Page loading time In the euphoria of having a great slick website, often, we use images that make t
As mentioned in an earlier article, a Bloom Team made up of four or five of your achievers can really accelerate your marketing. This Bloom Team can be used to: Validate Implement Criticize When an achiever validates one of your ideas, she lets you know your thinking is on the right track. Coaxing creative ideas to the surface is a recurring marketing challenge. Not all your ideas will generate a positive change for your company. To create is to risk. You’ll never discover completely fresh ideas or combine old ideas in innovative ways unless you are willing to climb onto some fresh limbs.And that means that yes, sometimes you are going to fall. Some of your best creative ideas will wind up being outlandishly stupid. That’s okay! If a few of your proposals aren’t a little bit out there then you are stuck in creative f
2. Shopping cart – so that the buyer can select one or several items to purchase.
3. Payment gateway – so that the buyer can make payments for the products or services purchased.
Corporate portals
A Website that offers a broad range of resources and services such as email, forums, company pertinent news & articles, members only area, etc. is generally called a portal. Portals are intended to be the gateway for their respective audience.
B2B exchange
Business to Business Exchange is an online platform where buyers and sellers come to communicate, collaborate and make business transactions. The main objective of a B2B Exchange is to create a venue, filled with features that allow members to efficiently conduct business processes through the Internet. A private B2B exchange is a corporate portal with a marketplace. It is designed to provide services to the company’s own buyers, sellers and workforce.
WEBSITE PLANNING
Before starting to build your website you should first develop a plan in line with your online objectives, target audience and resources. You can write your plan thoroughly as a storyboard. A storyboard is something similar to a flowchart of all the website components you deem necessary. Once you have a clear picture of what you are going to build, sit with your developers and create a technical scope of the project. This is absolutely necessary! In most of the cases your entrepreneurial vision will differ drastically with the way a programmer look into your requirement.
While working on your scope or even after publishing your website bear in mind the following crucial aspects of effective websites:
Page loading time In the euphoria of having a great slick website, often, we use images that make t
If you are interested in taking surveys and getting paid, then your first decision should be to research. As much as some don't want to believe it, most internet survey sites are run by people only concerned with making a profit. The steps taken initially to protect yourself against fraud are going to be a great investment for your future. Once you have done sufficient research, you can be more realistic about what to expect from these companies.Start by reviewing the condition of these websites. Is the site coded with poor html, or overwhelmed with affiliate ads? These are early signs of fraud and are important reasons to investigate further. Poor html can be attributed to the inexperienced, while affiliate ads are sometimes the reason the site was created. Are there too many misspelled words or grammatical errors? These are clear signs of a thrown together website usually ma
WEBSITE PLANNING
Before starting to build your website you should first develop a plan in line with your online objectives, target audience and resources. You can write your plan thoroughly as a storyboard. A storyboard is something similar to a flowchart of all the website components you deem necessary. Once you have a clear picture of what you are going to build, sit with your developers and create a technical scope of the project. This is absolutely necessary! In most of the cases your entrepreneurial vision will differ drastically with the way a programmer look into your requirement.
While working on your scope or even after publishing your website bear in mind the following crucial aspects of effective websites:
Page loading time In the euphoria of having a great slick website, often, we use images that make the pages too heavy. A page which takes just one second to load with T1 speed will need full 55 seconds to load with a 28.8 modem. Web surfers are impatient bunch of click-happy people; they don’t like to wait too long! Make sure you optimize each and every page of your website before launching the site! Otherwise, you will loose a large portion of your would-be visitors for nothing!
- Look at your pages from a visitor’s prospective.
- Eliminate all images that are not so important to deliver your messages. Optimize the remaining images with available tools.
- FLASH images are may be cool, don’t use them just because they are cool. Use them wisely.
- Host your website in a server with a good bandwidth.
Navigation
Your website’s links should be well-defined, persistent, and easily visible. If the site is large with many pages, you must have a site map page. Remember that not all visitors will land to your homepage, in order to keep them browsing through your site make navigation from your main landing pages as easy as possible. Try giving them compelling reasons to do so by using catchy links. Also, make sure that all your links work correctly and take a visitor to right place.
Webpage consistency
All your web pages should have one consistent look. This will give your website a professional appearance, and visitors while browsing through your site will always know that they are still on your website.
Content is the king
If you want your visitors to return back to your site, regularly add fresh, relevant and quality content to your website. Internet users are information hungry people, feed them with fresh information on a regular basis and you will have good number of loyal visitors to your website.
If you already have a website make sure you optimize your website from user’s point of view. According to Gartner, a market research company, even a minor investment in improving the usability of a company website will yield an annual return of 10 to 20 per cent. It increases brand awareness, leads to higher user adoption rates and possibly more transactions per user. Average order size starts to rise and the site generates more return visits from customers.
RESOURCES
Website Performance Tool and Web Page Speed Analysis: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze
Check your web pages for bad links: http://www.siteowner.com/badlinks.cfm
Webmaster resources: http://bignosebird.com
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
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BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.diggitup.net/article/51025/diggitup-How-to-Build-a-Business-Website.html]How to Build a Business Website[/url]
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