Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Get the Best Shopping Cart With Magento Web Development

In the sphere of website development, Magento web development is one of the most favored open sources. And the moment anybody thinks of developing an online store, he or she has to hire Magento team for sure! You must be thinking why such statement? It is because the shopping cart structure and the userfriendly facility of Magento web development can be said as the best.

Now we can have a little discussion on - why use Magento for online store or how Magento shopping cart is worth using in a website.

  • First of all Magento has a clear code structure and integration of the codes are easy for a Magento team and even the APIs and other third-party application works fine with it.
  • It is the one shopping cart that provides multi-store facility and multiple shopping options with one page checkout. For the owner of the site it is a great opportunity to run multiple numbers of stores and the users get the chance for single checkout for whatever he or she shops.
  • You can ask your hired Magento team or the developers to integrate from more than 50 numbers of payment gateways with this shopping cart. Thus it resembles how much the coding is strong and flexible.
  • The database structure should be essentially solid and records against the shopping cart need to be integrated one for online businesses. Magento web development does provide with these facilities.
  • It is the only platform for any online store that provides live converter of currency. So the user gets too much ease when buying any product.
  • By using of Magento web development in your online store, you get the opportunity to have SEO features that are inbuilt.
  • When a Magento team develops an online store they build it with product review option. This option gives an opportunity to shop owner to get customers feedback.
  • The update and support is fantastic. When you hire a Magento team, you and the developers know that the developer's community is very strong and there will not be any constraints in debugging.

So what are you waiting for when you need a secure and best online store for your website? What you are to do is find out a Magento team to provide you successful and the suitable most required shopping cart with the help of Magento web development. Be a little cautious in the selection, you are to choose a Magento team which has experience in the Magento web development. Affordability does matter but it should not become a drawback for you!

These articles are to share some knowledge with you people, written by me J. W. Parker. I writes for Infowaylive, which will end your search for PHP developer India for best web design and development services. You can also have a look on our web developer blog which is like a discussion board where you will get information about latest trends & technologies, thoughts about business and many more.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Creating Your Own Website Is Easier Than You Think

Creating your own website is easier enough, it's art of landing on the first page of Google that takes knowledge, the right action and time. In this article I'll cover the first simple steps in creating your website and understanding why it is very efficient for entrepreneurs to make their own site as opposed to hiring expensive web designers.

No one could possibly start creating their own website without knowing the definition of a website and why it is necessary to have one. A website is a group of related web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that are given relative to a common Uniform Resource Locator (URL), often consisting of only the domain name, or the IP address, and the root path ('/') in an Internet Protocol-based network.

A serious entrepreneur would always want to have more costumers in the market. Remember that customers expect that a company has a web site. These people would want to know information on a particular product and they would rush to the internet to check it out.

Promoting your product on the internet with a good professional websites is quicker, easier and more cost-effective to update than print based media. The good thing about having your own website is you can post pictures, upload videos, details and prices of your products, company information and most importantly, maps indicating the location of your company's outlets on your web-site.

Here is the step by step guide on how to create your own website.

1. Have your own domain name. Just like having a bakery shop you're domain name could be mrbakersshop.com. A domain name is not an ordinary name. It is a name that you give to your website so be sure to create one that would give an excellent remark from your customers. To do so, you need to pay an annual fee to a registrar for the right to use that name.

2. Choose your web host. A web host is a company that has many computers connected to the Internet. The next part would be signing for an account to that webhost and you're good to go to your next step.

3. After giving your site an excellent and catchy domain name, choosing and signing for a web host, here comes the most fun part of creating your own website. This step would definitely give you the chance of revealing how talented you are in designing your web pages.

· First, select the right category for your domain.

· Second, choose the software you'll use to make your site. Or if you use the software we recommend - Joomla, choose a perfect template that would show a very pleasing design to your website. There are many professional templates to choose from on the web and it is up to you as to how you could start promoting your product with perfect colour combination and font style.

· Third, customize your website by dragging and dropping your logo in, adding your own text or editing what's written there. Posting pictures or videos of your product. Keep in mind that your website contains all the pages you'll need for all the contents you have for your running business. You can do anything with your website and make it something that you really dreamed of.

· Do SEO to make your website visible to the search engines.

4. Now you're done customizing your web pages, the last step would be showing your website to the world. Click the "publish" button and your website is good to go. Costumers will search on your business on Google, yahoo and other search engines.

How to create your own website is very quick and easy especially if you are using the open source software of Joomla, and take proper Joomla Training. It plays an integral part of company's promotional and marketing strategy. It creates a powerful statement about running business and securing on-line presence today is more like the best investment in the world.

At Joomla Video Tutorials you'll find the most comprehensive and easy to follow videos Joomla Training, so you can make your own professional looking websites within 24 hours.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Finding a Credible Web Hosting Company

The Internet is one of the best business solutions for a company. The Internet opens many opportunities for businesses when it comes to reaching customers globally especially in marketing and advertising purposes. These are all possible through web hosting companies. These companies offers hosting services to businesses where the website is hosted in a server that is connected to the Internet 24 hours a day, 7 times a week. Businesses that shifted to online has increased profits and revenues that is considered as an advantage because for these businesses, the large market could be found online.

You might be one of those newbie in the world of online business where everything is new and fresh. Because of limited budget, you decided to choose free web hosting. But because of the increasing traffic in the WWW, there is a tight competition. To resolve this issue you tend to transfer to other service provider that could give your website the ultimate benefits. However shifting to a new service provider could cost you more but the returns will be more than what you have spend.

Find a service provider that would deliver great results to your website. A good service provider is a company who can adjust to your needs when it comes to your bandwidth, disk space and problems with increasing traffic. Furthermore, a good service provider is the one that has a good customer support anytime of the day. There is a growing number of providers for this kind of industry or business likewise you should be careful. Find a service provider that can be trusted and is already proven to be credible and outstanding.

Maggie Jackson is a part time blogger. Most of her posts are about technology, Internet, web hosting particularly VPS Hosting and Virtual Servers. Aside from blogging she is also into sports like tennis and swimming. She describes herself as an adventurous, vibrant and a pet lover lady.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Piano Teaching Website - A Reliable Partner in Teaching Music

Take piano teaching in a most innovative, creative and fun way. Piano teachers and pursuits like you will surely be keen on the various information that you could access to the piano page. It contains information about the instrument, piano playing, interesting facts about pianos, and advice on purchasing and servicing pianos, piano care information, tuning information, variety of resources related to pianos, and links to related sites. A piano teaching website will take you into a piano world where you can learn anything that you want - from the basics of piano playing to the most complicated strokes of pulling the keys. Piano teachers will get a chance to update their knowledge on piano, anytime, anywhere at their own pace. Just a one click, you could navigate the whole piano education page. On the other hand, harmonizing the website are the testimonies and advices of well-known pianists and musicians that will certainly give you a whole new interest in music.

Grab the opportunity of feeling like playing in the Beethoven's Piano Concert by plotting the piano teaching website. It offers wide range of music videos of renowned piano concerts in the country and abroad. You will surely learn a lot by the close up view of their piano playing and tuning. Educators could gain useful strategies and techniques in organizing a mini piano play and recital. More than the range of piano videos, the website also offer customized learning modules and resources.

Both teachers and students could enroll to the piano short courses and activities via distance learning. The modules include the basics of piano playing and tuning, strategies on setting the pitch and musical tone of your piano, and writing and playing your own piano notes. Piano teachers could also learn lots of learning approaches and strategies in teaching their students. These pedagogical interventions include innovative and animated means of relaying the theoretical and practical knowledge to your class. Most of the piano enthusiasts who take face-to-face tutorials are those who belong in the younger age groups; thereby you will need a teaching approach that would make the tutorial more fun and dynamic.

The piano teaching website administrators will certainly assist you upon navigating the page. If you are quite untrained in the use of technology, you do not have to worry, because the homepage of the website has stepwise procedures in using all the tools and features. Or if you are still quite confused, why not give a call to the website administrators, and they will surely assist you throughout the session. Piano teachers and pursuits must take in mind that the website was not only designed to provide piano learning, but moreover to establish relationship and camaraderie amongst the piano enthusiasts elsewhere in the world. It has a space where you and other users could actually chat and share information about you. Plus, the website administrator usually conducts an online group forum where all the participants could meet and discuss in the cyberspace.

Truly distinctive compared to other piano pages, their piano teaching website offers exceptional piano consultants. A teacher like you could also undergo series of piano lessons and structured learning activities with the help of piano experts via distance learning. Look at such reliable piano teaching website now and discover the range of special features that it offers you!

Learn how you can have your own piano teaching website, visit this music teacher resource - Earl Marsden

Earl Marsden started developing a passion for music at the early age of twelve. He first learned to play the guitar at thirteen, and from there he pursued the study other instruments including the violin, piano and flute. Currently, he devotes some of his spare time to writing articles about music teaching while managing his own music studio.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Website Developers Guide - 3 SEO Tips For Web Design

What is the central driving force behind a successful e-commerce website? While every detail about your business website counts, proper search engine optimization is a critical driving force toward business website success. Successful online businesses use SEO to drive targeted traffic to their website. When it comes to e-commerce websites, there are two types of SEO: on-page optimization and off-page optimization. I'm going to take you through on-page optimization. Also known as SEO for website development.

On-page optimization includes title tags, header tags, anchor text, and overall content. As a business website developer, your goal is to make sure search engines can see your website and index it under relevant search terms. To accomplish this, there are three important SEO tips every web developer should know.

1. Market research. Study your market niche inside and out. Who are your most successful competitors? Follow them and learn from the best. I'm not saying to go be a copycat. I'm telling you to find out what works and do it better. Find out how your competitors are succeeding. For example, what keywords are they using? Are they driving traffic through free or paid methods? What do their websites have in common? Look for similarities like layout, color scheme, title, header text, anchor text, and so on. All of these will clue you in on how you need to build your website.

2. Keyword research. Find out what keywords successful competitors are using in your niche. Their keywords are the first few words in the title, header, and even domain name. Find out the keywords people are typing into major search engines such as Google and Yahoo. This is very important. Ideally, you'll want to spend about 3 days gathering sufficient data. It helps to take notes and organize them using excel. Also, keyword tools like Google's own keyword tool and SEO toolkit are perfect for this job. They contain recent and accurate data and they're free.

As a guideline for choosing keywords, try to focus on more specific keywords in your niche. Choose keywords with less competition. This will tremendously help your website get found in search results. For example, say you're selling shoes. "Shoes" is a general keyword that you'd have a really hard time popping up in search results for. Choose relevant keywords with less competition such as running shoes for men, women's tennis shoes, dress shoes for prom night, sandals for the beach, kitchen clogs, children's hiking boots, 2 inch pumps, petite high heels, etc. One thing you must be aware of is using name brands like Nike or Reebok. You could use them for organic search results, but for paid ad campaigns such as Google Adwords certain name brands are not allowed.

3. Maintain keyword relevancy. Now that you've done keyword research, the third thing you need to do is maintain keyword relevancy. Google, Yahoo and other major search engines rank highly for relevant content. Relevancy is the foundation to success as a business website. Your title, header tags, body content, anchor text, the content of all websites linking to yours, they should all be keyword rich and share a common theme.

SEO for website development is critically important, but it's only maybe 30% of overall SEO. As an internet marketer, off-page SEO is a grueling, never-ending journey through trail and error where winner takes all. For the dedicated marketer, it's a rewarding addiction.

Stephanie Vigil is a professional website developer in NM. For affordable rates, visit website design Taos.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Work at Home - Websites Are No Longer Optional

Do you work at home? Do you have a website? If not, you are placing yourself in a very difficult position. The fact is that in order for a business to survive today, be it online or offline, it needs a website. The good news is that the costs associated with building a website have dropped drastically over the past decade. Hence, where it used to cost thousands of dollars to build a website, nowadays it costs just a fraction.

While I hate to caution against giving business to one entity over another, I have to do so in this instance. When searching for someone to build your website, I have to caution you to stay away from the larger companies. These entities have too many fixed expenses, which need to be passed onto their customers. Of course, every brick and mortar business in the world does this. However, in the case of web design, not every business is brick and mortar. Take advantage of this.

My strong recommendation is that you focus your attention on those web designers who work at home. Often times these designers have full-time jobs, but are looking for freelance projects to supplement their income. They do not have to pay rent for a 2400 sq.ft. office space, and therefore do not have these expenses to pass on to their customers.

Having just endorsed freelance web designers, I must also warn you that every designer has their own style. Thus, it is important that you see examples of their previous work before moving forward. Most will have a portfolio website, which links to examples of past work. This is an important step which should not be overlooked.

Finding freelance designers to choose from will not be a problem. There are several websites out there to facilitate this. For example, Elance, Guru, iFreelance, oDesk, and Scriptlance are great freelance portals to work with. Essentially, you will need to register, and then provide of listing of exactly what you need done for your project. Thereafter, freelancers will bid on your project. You will be able to see how satisfied, or dissatisfied, past customers were as each bidder has a rating if they have completed past projects which were commented on by past customers. You have complete control whether to accept or reject a bid.

However, if hiring someone to build your website simply is not in your budget, do not panic. You still have options. The best option which I can come up with is utilizing a Content Management System (CMS), such as Joomla or WordPress. Both of these give you the capacity to simply purchase a template, and build your website based off of the template and CMS platform. Just make sure that you take you time in selecting a template. It is of the utmost importance that your template be relevant to the theme of your business. Furthermore, since templates are not unique to you, it is best that you choose a less popular template so that another online business does not have a website which is nearly identical to yours. Nonetheless, whichever direction that you go in, just make sure that it ends up with you getting a website. You need a website if you work at home.

If you have made up your mind to Work At Home, I can tell you first hand that you are making a wise decision. However, anyone planning to Make Money Online doing so, you are going to need a website. The good news is that it is not difficult to build you own website nowadays.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Website Content - Spring is Finally Here - Is it Time For Some Website Spring Cleaning?

Yes, it's true - what has been eagerly anticipated by millions as the dreary days of winter slowly pass by is finally here. Spring is in the air, and as is traditional, it's time for new beginnings and spring cleaning. Now it might seem a little bit silly at first, but the truth is, most of our web sites could probably withstand a little bit of springtime sprucing up of their own.

Where To Start, Where To Start...

Perhaps this is the most complicated dilemma of the whole notion-where to begin. Probably the biggest first step that you can take here would just be to jump in and begin with a good in-depth review of your website. Sit down for a reasonable length of time with your website on the screen and a pencil and paper in hand and think about the following questions:

• Does my home page seem up-to-date with recent news and content?
• What about the look-is it modern and still relevant in today's web-centric environment?
• Is there too much clutter on the home page?
• What about the inside pages of the website...has the content built up to a point where some purging or spring cleaning would be beneficial to the sanity of your visitors?
• Are all of the links working correctly throughout the site, still pointing to existing, relevant resources?
• Phone numbers, addresses, and emails do change from time to time-is the contact information on your site still up to date?
• Are any old products listed or promoted on your site that should be removed?
• Any other dated content that you might want to keep, but should at least be archived?
• What about dated graphics or other like site components?
• Is it time to spruce up the look and feel of your website?
• What about adding new products or promotions to the site?
• Are you using clear, effective calls to action throughout the site?
• Could your landing page use a sales-driving makeover?
• How is your SEO performing...time for a review or updated plan in the traffic department?
• Any other new or potentially big ideas you can think of that might be worth at least brainstorming and reviewing further?

Sure, these are just a few things to think of in your website spring cleaning review, but should help you get started and come up with a good plan of action to bring some new life back to your website this season. Remember, high-performance websites are really no longer optional; they're essential to doing good business.

WSpider, Inc.
Full Service Internet Marketing Agency
SEO, SEM, PPC Management & Web Design
Get a Free Website Review by going to WSpider.com
http://blog.wspider.com
http://www.WSpider.com
All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Thursday, May 27, 2010

The Minimum Pages For Your Website

It is agreed that the core function of a website is to communicate with the visitors to the website. For this reason your website must be able to provide information about yourself or your business, have information available if visitors wants to contact you and also be able to showcase your services or products.

Therefore the 4 pages that must always be on any website are:

  • Home Page
  • About Us
  • Service or Products
  • Contact Us

The Home Page or Landing page is your website's most important page, as this is window to the rest of your website and usually the first page your customers will see if they go to your website. For this reason you should put the most effort into this page's layout and content. The page should also include abbreviated pieces of information that is linked to your other web pages.

Another very important page is the Contact page. There should be contact details or at least a link to your contact page on every other page of your website. This will ensure that customers can easily contact you. Your contact page must provide the customer with various methods of contacting you, including an email address, telephone number, fax number and also a contact form.

The About Us/Me page should be providing more information about yourself or your business, giving a bit of history and also your direction for the future. You can also include photos of yourself and your family or business on this page.

If your website is for more than just informational purposes, then you must also include a page or pages showcasing your services or products. You can either put them all on a single page or have separate pages for different services or products.

Even though there are numerous other web pages that one can create for a website, these four are the minimum required to have and must always be included in your website. This will ensure that you have an appropriate internet presence for your website.

Look out for a future article where I will give more detail on other web pages that can be included in a business website to provide a greater experience for your customers, as well as to boost the professionalism of your website and internet presence.

Petrus Keyter

http://www.pankey.co.za

To be notified when future articles become available, click on the Article Resource below.

If you have enjoyed this article, why not rate it for me please.

If you have any comments or questions about this article, feel free to email us at info@pankey.co.za.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Websites - The Cheap Way

It can cost you heavily to have a top quality website built for you, paying out several hundreds or even thousands of dollars. You still might not be guaranteed you'll get what you want.

1 It can be a rip-off. No doubt you've seen ads in magazines where companies are charging hundreds of dollars for a simple website with, say, five pages. They may be a physical business which has overheads to account for, such as office space. In any case, it's a risk using one unseen and you're better at least following a personal recommendation.

Even then, you'll be dealing with coders, not internet marketers. So, unless you can describe in exact detail what you want, you may have problems. They will probably not adjust their coding themselves to fit the internet marketing purpose of the site.

2 Freelance. Another option is to finder a coder on a place like elance. These can be cheaper because they don't have the overheads but can work to just the same quality as the more expensive larger companies.

However, the same reservations as above, about coders and internet marketing, apply. You're best testing a coder out with a smaller project first to see how they do in terms of following your specifications, not needing to keep coming back to you, and timing. You could test out a few and choose the best one.

3 Do it yourself. If you only want a simple five page site you can work on it yourself. You could do it for free by downloading a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor like Kompozer. Or you could invest in a program like XSitePro which helps you build multi-page sites as well as single sales pages. There is a learning curve but you are in control of the process yourself and one payment covers as many sites as you want to make. Once you know how, without using any coding, you can repeat it again and again.

Get my new free ecourse on the keys to a successful business: http://www.computer-home-business.com and to get information on starting your own internet business, click here: http://www.web100k.com

Saturday, April 24, 2010

The First Steps to Create My Own Website

Those who are new online might be wondering how you create my own website and the truth of the matter is that it is much easier than you ever would have expected. At the same time, however, you cannot simply throw a few lines onto a website template and expect anyone to visit it, as there is a certain science behind creating a website that people will actually want to visit.

This is especially true if you want to make money online, as your website must be something unique and have content that people will want to read or see whenever they visit. In the end, you must know how to create a website in the correct manner, or else this entire venture will end up being a waste of time for you.

Since the internet is relatively new, there are many things about it that are not yet common knowledge. In today's society, pretty much everyone knows how to start a car because they have been around for generations. Not everyone, however, knows how to start a website because it has, up until now, been a specialized field.

There are a few things that anyone who is wondering how to create my own website should know about, as these tips will make it possible for the building to come up with someone that people will truly want to see.

The first thing that you should do is find yourself a teacher who has done this before, as this will help out with many of the growing pains. You probably have a friend who has created a website in the past and this friend will hopefully be able to guide you along the way. If you are unable to find a friend with this experience, you will be able to find a mentor online.

There are many different website out there that will help you along the way, as there is a great deal of information that you can use to help yourself. Remember, the goal here is to create my own website, so it is not wise to find someone who will simply do everything for you. You want someone who will teach you the various techniques, so that you can design the website on your own.

Once you have a found a teacher, make sure that you ask plenty of questions, as that is why these people are there. If you have some basic knowledge already, you can begin designing and then contact your mentor whenever you run into problems. If you have no prior knowledge whatsoever, it is a good idea to find an e-course that includes this information. An e-course will be able to give you a step by step outline of how to create my own website, which will give you the knowledge base that you need to get started.

Remember that even though most web hosts will provide you with a tutorial, it is always best to have additional information on things like HTML, so that you can make your own decisions and create the website that you truly want. In fact, if you are using a mentor to help you along the way, it is highly advisable that you learn the basics of how to create my own website before you ask for any help. That way, you will not waste the person's time with basic questions.

Since this person is helping you out, you will not want to waste his or her time, especially if you are not paying for the service. Learning the very basics will definitely give you an advantage, just like being prepared for a test in class. Once you have learned and you have found yourself a mentor, be sure that you ask for as much feedback and possible on how to create my own website.

Your mentor will be able to tell you what works and what does not work, which will allow you to avoid many of the mistakes that other people make.

As you become more experienced, you will learn to tweak things yourself and when someone comes to you with questions about how to create my own website, you will be able to help these people out in the same way that you were helped in the past.

Now that you know this, let me show you a simple all-in-one tool I used to create my own website.

It will be your mentor as it shows you step by step how to build a profitable website, while providing the tools and support we have mentioned above.

Check it out now at http://createmyownwebsite.create-website-easy.com/.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

5 Strategies Undertaken by Professionals For the Best Website Development

In today's world, no one takes the initiative to start cultivating something. It does not matter to anyone whether it is for their personal requirements or to meet their business requirements but people prefer hiring professionals to accomplish the same. It is definitely advantageous to hire someone to get the best services but you should have some knowledge so that you can also judge the same on your defined parameters.

A website development service is a typical portion while considering the website deployment for any organization. It is not tough but a bit complex one. While developing the websites one should keep in mind various standing instructions, which might help on later progress of the business. Web development India is progressing in a rapid way because Indian web development professionals are keen towards the development strategies and thereby meets the required criteria.

5 Important Website Development Strategies:

While developing websites, it is expected by most of the organizations to follow few strategies that could bring the best result in terms of traffic and business. These strategies may not be known to normal people who are outside of this technical world but it is somehow very important to know the different strategies so that the success constraint can be measured effectively. The various strategies that are kept in mind while developing the websites are as follows:

* Market Analysis:
Before developing the website like a layman apply some sensitivity and perform a serious market research as like some reputed offshore web development company. This will help in finding out what is the current demand of the market and whether you are creating something unnecessarily. In this way you would be able to save your precious time as well as money. During the time of deployment you can easily make out whether your website is developed based on the present market niche or not.

* Develop Customize Website:
If you are planning to indulge your thoughts while developing websites then keep your thoughts apart. World has changed now and entrepreneurs wants their choicest websites to be viewed by the web surfers. But, how is it possible? The easiest solution is, to indulge the clients whenever you are planning to develop websites for them. By this way at least you will be able to meet the customer satisfaction.

* People hate Backdated Technologies:
Are you thinking of implementing the same technology, which you have implemented till date? Then your act is really obnoxious. Technologies are changing every fortnight. So, you have to update yourself accordingly. You can not follow the same track. It is the time for your up gradation. It is up to the people whether they know about the technology or not but you should be updated always.

* Avoid Coding Complexities:
If you are the programmer you might get fascinated creating codes but in reality it dims everyone's fascination. Complex codes are easy to understand by website developers but not by general people. Redundancy of codes is another factor that annoys people to the extent, therefore better avoids your client's irritation. Coding complexities are the foremost factor that is needed to be reduced in order to make everything simpler after deployment of the websites.

* Save Time Reducing the Code Length:
Do not write unnecessarily lengthy codes. You might predict your potential observing your written codes but your clients might not. They always search for something short and stealthy. So, just separate your talent quotient from your development work while prioritizing the customers. Short codes behind the websites saves time as get uploaded easily so do not waste your time and talent behind unnecessary things.

All these are certain strategies that are followed by the professional website development services providers while developing the websites for the clients. If you are still confused regarding the checking factor then, consult the professionals who share their expertise for the offshore web development services. You can surely update your knowledge from web development India to get the best result. If you are working on your own then, do the best you can. The fact is the learning lesson is just initiated, which has no ending.

Author is related with offshore web development company, Aditech Web Development. Are you in search of professional website development services? Then log on to AditechWebDevelopment.com

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Web Branding of Your Business

So, you have a business or just started one. You need to get 'out there' and there are a thousand and one terms and companies that can help you do so. Costing probably an arm and a leg, or they're just down right suspicious. Well, if you have a little bit of IT knowledge, boosting your business may not be that hard.

First off, you'll need a webpage. Not just a MySpace or Facebook page. A proper website. Something that's you and reflects your business. Get a reliable web host. They'll look after your page. While you look for that, most of them offer a domain name. Choose something thats related to your business name or type, and geographical location.

Next, get a CMS. Its a Content Management System that is web based, and is usually easily installable by the web host. Joomla and Drupal are some of the best with extensive support and free add ons as well as templates. Make sure your template design is something that you can identify with as will your future customers.

Now start keying in words and setting up categories that will make the page easy to navigate and read. Google rankings increase with relevant keywords in your web page, so that kind of takes care of your Search Engine requirements. Get good images too. You can buy pictures for as low as $0.20 or take some of your own. Remember the page must be pleasing to the eye, easy to read and simple to navigate.

The worst thing you could do is to pepper the pages with too many blur or pixelated pictures and non-relevant text. Trust me, there are many pages out there with claim to such notoriety.

Have your contact details at the footer of each page, such as your phone number. Have a members area to make them feel special. You could send them updates from the web page, have members-only specials and even have a private forum. This improves traffic, which in turn generates sales. Remember, potential customers always search for businesses on the web, and if your web page represents everything about your business, you'll go a long way. That's branding and Internet marketing in a nutshell. Have fun and do write me if you need any more advice.

P Ryan Joseph
Your Business Online
http://www.ybo.com.sg
info@ybo.com.sg

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

How Do You Make Your Own Website - Planning Your Website

How do you make your own website? Well, you should consider planning your website first, before you even start. You need to know exactly what your ambitions of your website will achieve. Here are some thoughts you should consider.

It is all very well just designing your site as you go along, but you'll be banging your head with frustration! You need to focus on what you want out of it. Who are your visitors? What type of site do you want?

Yes, focus! Have some direction where you are going. Make sure you have all the steps in the sales funnel thought through.

For example, let say you are designing a squeeze page. As you probably know, your main objective is to build a list.

If you think about it, you really need to consider the whole process before even writing your copy. For this example, do you have the following?

• Your niche and the type of visitors you are seeking

• Product that you are giving away

• Have a domain name and hosting set up

• Autoresponder (AWeber) account with a few follow up messages already set up in advance

Now that is sorted, you can start to look at planning your website copy. A good way is to map it out using the old fashioned way, pen and paper.

If it is a squeeze page, you will need to think about a compelling headline. Then think about the key benefits of what your product will do for them. Where do you want the images and of course opt-in box to go?

On the other hand, if you are planning to have an e-commerce (online store) website, it will require a lot more preparation. How many products do you want included? There is a lot to consider, especially your niche as you don't want to be in direct competition with Amazon.

Planning your website in the beginning you may think is unnecessary, but it will pay you dividends in the end, eliminating some of those frustrations. So, if you want more information on how to make your own website, get your FREE e-book on unbelievably simple website creation. Just click here ==> http://www.creatingyourfirstwebsite.com

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Choosing Community Website Software - Are They All That Bad?

If you are getting frustrated with researching and choosing the best social networking software, then you will find this article very valuable.

When I initially starting looking for community website software packages, I faced the same issues. When I would look up user reviews on a particular package, I would either find sales pitches by the providers or reviews packed of unconstructive remarks written by irritated users. As you know, these scripts aren't inexpensive, so making a decision was horrible!

1st challenge: Lots of unconstructive reviews, few encouraging ones.

Each time you type "Dzoic" or "phpfox" in Google, you'll probably find many reviews of persons saying they are all a rip off. Is this right?All of these reviews need to be put into perspective. Clients turn out to be annoyed when they purchase something that does not meet their expectations. Looking at the script features specified by the providers, I often wonder what these clients were really expecting.

Generally, angry customers did not comprehend the nature of the product they were purchasing. Community website software solutions like efriends, Dzoic, and so on, are ready made. They come with a very important list of features that are hardcoded. For someone with partial know-how of php, html and other languages, modifying these scripts will be a difficult job. Even for a skilled programmer, this would be a challenge. Due to the complexity of the scripts, a programmer would have to read a lot of documents and then attempt to comprehend the complete construction from scratch to make any noteworthy changes to the functionality.

Most of the bad reviews come from persons who did not comprehend this and did not take the occasion to plan out the exact requirements of their website prior to buying an out of the box package.

The basic rule to being a pleased client is determining what it is you are expecting exactly. Only at that time can you look for a community website software package that suits you best, and then maybe have minor changes made. Doing this the other way around is a costly recipe for failure!

2nd challenge: The offer is too big!

There are more than a hundred distinctive providers out there. How on earth can you make an informed decision with all these horrible reviews and expensive price tags?

Again, the answer lies in your methodology. No IT project can come to triumph without an obvious specification of requirements.

As soon as you have made a list of what you desire your site to be able to do, you should have restricted the offer to a top 5 list.

Now is the time to begin looking at the front-end design (the part the users see and navigate through). Out of these 5, which one do you like best? Which of the software solutions do you think needs the slightest modifications design and colour wise?

By now, you should have a shortlist of a a small amount of solutions that are fit for your needs.

3rd challenge: They are all so costly!!!

Lets think about this for a moment. You are purchasing a software solution with multiple interactive features like chat, video, audio, twitter feeds, mobile feeds, polls, groups, affiliate management, etc. If you were to create this yourself, even with programming expertise, you would be paying a lot more in terms of expensive hours passing by.

If you are not willing to invest this amount in your project, you ought to look for other solutions. Perhaps your project is better fitted for something like Ning, which hosts social networks without you actually purchasing the script and building a website yourself.

Again, it all depends on your expectations. What is it that you want to realize?

Conclusion:

1. None of the solutions are "bad" as such. What makes some better than the others, is the client service and documents on the software.

2. Being a pleased client depends a lot on yourself. Make a list of what you wish for exactly, and after that start looking for a solution.

3. Try to choose a solution that already has the design you are looking for.

4. Decide if your project is worth the money and compare this to the cost of a programmer or the time you would waste on it yourself.

5. To help in your search, acquire lists of features for each product, if possible with some user reviews about the client service.

Looking for social networking software to get you started?

Below software user review site will help you on your way:

http://www.TopCommunitySoftware.com

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Website Text - Your Guide to Effective Internet Content

You have decided to create a website for your business or to upgrade your existing website. You have hired a talented designer or you plan on doing it yourself. You know that in today's competitive marketplace, every business large or small needs an Internet presence.

But what can you expect from your website? How do you decide its functionality, appearance, number of pages, and level of interactivity? What should the text say? How much text do you need? Here's an introduction to website text and its function.

There are three basic types of websites.

The Business Card

Effective for professionals and upscale service providers including attorneys, financial planners, dentists, and home construction companies, a business card website is typically no more than five or six pages: home page, services, about us, contact us, and case studies or testimonials. The site is designed to accomplish three goals:

1. To validate the visitor's choice of you and your company.
2. To educate the consumer in a very general way.
3. To provide a means to contact you.

Business card websites should have enough search-engine-optimized (SEO) text including keywords so that when a prospect performs a search, your website appears. For example, if you are a divorce lawyer in Spokane, Washington, your text needs to contain these keywords.

A business card website need not be expensive and the content need not change very often. Because you want your clients to read the text, the quality of the writing must be flawless. Each page will contain from 200 to 500 words, and each sentence must be polished to perfection.

To create fresh content, you may consider including a blog on your website. The website is considered a marketing expense because you are not using it to directly generate revenues. It establishes your brand in the marketplace.

The call to action is an invitation to the visitor to contact you for more information.

E-Commerce Website

Designed to make sales, e-commerce websites (like Amazon.com) offer products or services for sale. The website is designed to generate revenue and encourage visitors to make a transaction. There must be a high level of interactivity and security.

In marketing, there are three degrees of sales pitch: soft, medium, and hard. A soft sell encourages the visitor to make contact and to enter into the sales process (most business card websites are soft-sell). The medium sell makes it easy to complete the transaction on the spot: all the information is there, the checkout process is easy, and there is no reason why the customer should wait to make the purchase. The hard sell uses highly focused sales techniques to funnel the visitor to a sale; often there is the implication that if the customer waits, the opportunity will be lost.

E-commerce websites can be either a few pages or vast in scope with hundreds of pages. But the functional text is often kept very simple because you do not want the visitor to get bogged down by reading long descriptive paragraphs. The content may change frequently. Search engine optimization is important, depending upon the level of visibility of your company. Smaller websites (four or five pages) that sell a product or service must feature concise text that supports the sales process-no extraneous verbiage that will distract the reader.

The call to action is an invitation to the visitor to make a purchase, right now.

The Stand-Alone Website

In some cases, such as Google and Facebook, the website itself generates all of the company's revenues. There is no other "product." The stand-alone website creates income by charging for advertising, affiliates, links, and other Internet-related services. The only way for the site to grow and profit is to attract huge numbers of visitors. Search engine ranking is critical to success. These sites must be deep and must contain large amounts of text.

There is no call to action, except to stay longer on the website and view more pages, or to subscribe to the website.

Website Text

Many large websites have a two-tiered approach to text. The "public" pages that represent the site and are seen by every visitor, such as the home or landing page, the about us pages, and FAQ pages, must be written perfectly. One typographical error or poorly written phrase can create the impression that the site is unprofessional or, even worse, is a scam. (Ever notice how the dangerous phishing emails, like those that claim to be from your bank or Internet provider, always have bad English?)

But good writing is not cheap. To populate the back pages of websites with search engine fodder, business owners are often tempted to purchase bulk articles. As long as the keywords are right and the writing is good enough to satisfy the search engine spiders, the bulk articles may serve their purpose. But there are big dangers to this strategy. First, bulk articles are often copied from other articles and "spun," or changed slightly, to appear original. If you purchase these spun articles, chances are you are loading up your website with content that is nearly identical to content on dozens of other websites. The search engine value of the text is severely compromised because your page rank has been diluted. You can check on the originality of any text by using an online service such as Copyscape.

Second, you run the risk that a visitor will actually read your content. Substandard text makes you look unprofessional and indistinguishable from hundreds of other similar sites. It is much better if all the text on your website is of the highest quality, is SEO, and is original.

Your website may be read by hundreds or thousands of potential customers. It is always a good idea to invest in quality writing that will enhance your reputation and brand, and give your customers confidence in you.

Thomas Hauck Communications Services provides writing and editing solutions for businesses and nonprofits. Visit us at http://www.thomashauck.net/ for information on how THCS can impact your bottom line.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Web Development Company - 7 Stages of Web Development Life Cycle

Hiring a web development company is a tough job unless you know the minimum basics of a website creation. This is why because the web development companies may try to cheat you by pricing high to develop your website, if you don't know at least the common things involved in the development of a website.

So, here I would like to discuss the main stages involved in the web development life cycle.

Requirement Analysis:

This is the basic step for starting a web development project and should be done carefully. This is also the first step in any web development company. The analysis can be done through questionnaires, email letters, participating in interactive sessions, meetings etc... that covers all the details of the chosen project (i.e., concept).

1. Purpose of the website
2. Marketing objectives
3. Who is your audience & what are their expectations?
4. Competitors
5. Database and price details etc...

Preparing Documentation:

By analyzing all the above factors, they try to estimate whether the project is achievable or not? If yes, they calculate "how much cost needed for complete project?" With these details, a specification document is prepared which is given to the client for verification and approval.

Tip: Here, the client should also have some basic knowledge on his project. He should compare these details with the market trends and decide whether to continue the project or not?

Note: Some companies normally rate high because they provide quality product. Remember, a quality product is always costlier.

Web Design:

If the given details are accepted by the customer, then the particular web development company will start the design for the website. Designs are nothing but the look and feel of the website at front-end. In this phase, they determine the architecture of the website by developing a detailed sitemap.

Tip: The client should give his suggestions to make the design more beautiful. Also check that the design is not used by someone else.

Website Development & Coding:

This is a very important phase in any web development company. It involves the actual coding and database design. Communicating with the databases will be handled in this development phase and the back-end code is written. This build is given to the test engineers to check the occurring errors.

Testing:

The test engineers perform test cases to test the build correctly working or not? The defects will be intimated to the developers for rectification. This loop continuous until no or minimal errors where found. The error-free build will then be given to the customer for approval.

Deployment:

If the customer accepts the build, then the website is deployed to make it go live.

Tip: Choose the best web hosting company which ensures full security and customer support.

Maintenance and Updating:

This is the final stage in the web development life cycle which involves in updating and maintenance of the website with latest features that are helpful to the users.

The above said life cycle is not fixed and may vary according to the web development company you choose.

About the Author - Radha Krishna Reddy is SEO Specialist, Presently working with HORA, a Web Development Company in India that provides an excellent quality services in India and World Wide,ranging from Web designing and SEO.