Website Format & Inspiration - No Technology Required

Web sites come in all forms, sizes, and individual presentations, unique as the invitation of their mission. With this ongoing quest to be original, unique, and productive, some basic website format and inspiration can accomplish your endeavors, with no technology required.

Pleasing format

A pleasing format, is not cluttered, abrasive, annoying or confusing. Navigation should be easy to follow, consistent, and in full view, preferably in the left column, or the top of the page. Content should be broken up into blocks of text, paragraphs at 3 to 4 sentences, as most people are going to scan text for bits of information they find informative, interesting or entertaining.

Content begins with inspiration

If content is king, and we all agree, then inspiration is the foundation to build content into your aspirations. Read, research, and be open to all avenues of ideas in conversations, forums, articles, and even movies. Build on an idea, test the response to your ideas, give them time to grow, but know when to revise your presentation.

No technology required

With ease of use site builders, basic point and click editors, with new innovative tweaks, making a website is more assessable than ever, with no technology required. Whether making your personal website, showcasing a project near and dear to your heart, incorporating your personal endeavor into your business, or your online presentation, technology based programing is no longer a barrier.

Make it personal

When applicable, include a personal experience with the matter, product, venture and presentation at hand. You don't want to vent, or expose your inner soul, but some first hand experience, commitment, and sincerity expresses your rapport with your visitors' concerns, problem, or manner of personal resolve. You may share a common goal, and sense of value.

Perfection is in interpretation

Format need not be elaborate, but direct and basic, where your visitors will feel comfortable, find value, and a commitment of presence. Ideas are made to test, and revise, as perfection in format and inspiration is in the interpretation of the beholder. Update your site often, keep it active, your links working and your content relevant to the links that lead to your website, and you will have made a gesture as close to perfection as anyone dare to seek.

For website format tips, and ideas for your own expression, visit http://www.websitetoptip.com which was made by this tech challenged content writer, of traditional expression, and truth. Dannie is a writer of website tips, on the basics of expression and introspection. She writes tips and ideas that inform, and deal more with inspiration, than technology.

For everything, there is a season. You were the season of childhood, great expectations, and dreams with no ceiling.

Build a Web Page and Create an Online Presence

In this digital age, building a webpage is an activity that is becoming easier to do almost every day. You can use a web page in order to help promote your business, including having an online shopping cart, or something more mundane, such as posting picture of your friends and family, or writing your thoughts about the events of today.

If you bang decided that you need to create a web attender, and hold a popular intent what you impoverishment it to be some, then the prototypical maneuver is to till a class phratry. Environment obloquy are the direct that fill type into their web application in tell to gain your position. You should knock your field sanction with want, as it is the premiere recite, and also web hosting so fill can admittance your parcel.

The next thing you need to do is create the website. There are many free programs that will help you so that the website almost writes itself. You no longer need to know HTML code in order to create a web page, it is now very similar to word processing and you just add pictures where appropriate for a basic web page.

If you need to build a web page that is a small author finished, then care for a issue website model. Many companies give free templates for exposure albums, or blogs, so you rightful select the visage you poorness from a name, and analyse the instructions on uploading photos or inputting matter for blogs. Blogs are a majuscule way to update your friends and pedigree with what is accomplishment on with you, or retributory to get your views on humankind events.

For a business website, you will want to build a web page that tells people about your business, and look for a provider that offers shopping cart templates as well. All you need to do is select one of the predefined layouts, and fill in the information about the products you are selling, preferably providing a picture so people can view your site. They can also provide you with a way for your customers to pay for the items that your purchase without going through the hassle of setting up a merchant account.

It's pleasant and entertaining to build your own website. Lots of online resources are available to give you assistance. Some of these resources even offer free templates, so that you can design your own pages with a minimum of fuss. When you're looking for a site host, try to register your domain name with a site that offers these templates, so that you can take advantage of them. There are templates available to help you with business sites or personal ones, so that you can branch out professionally or share information with friends and relatives.

You may build a web page to help to promote a business or for just something more mundane, like posting pictures of your family and pals. You no longer need to know HTML code in order to create a web page, it is now very similar to word processing and you just add pictures where appropriate for a basic web page. Building a website is fun and easy. There are many online tutorials that will help you, and you will want to look for a company where you register domain name, get web hosting, and offers free templates to help you get started.

Top Questions to Ask a Web Design Agency

Choosing a web design agency to create and develop your website is a massive decision which requires a lot of trust on your behalf. Unfortunately there are many disreputable companies out there who may try to take advantage of you particularly if you're new to promoting your business online. There also are many great companies out there who will be only too happy to create a stunning website tailored to your business requirements and online image. How can you ensure you make the right choice though? A good place to start is to ask them these questions below.

• What do you know about my business?
If you speak to a website design company who are already familiar with the industry you work in then this can be a huge advantage as they will be aware of your target audience. Some website companies do a lot of work in specific industries or specialise in certain types of websites such as the health industry or ecommerce websites. When you approach a design company they should ask you plenty of questions about your business so they can decide what they can offer you and if they can fulfil your requirements.

• Who will maintain the website?
Some design companies create content management systems which allow you to change content or images to keep your website fresh. Other designers will maintain the website for you and will usually charge for this service. Some people prefer to have their designers deal with the maintenance of the website but sometimes if you want to make a quick text change for example you could be waiting for your designer to be free to make the change for you for a while. If they do offer a content management system then check to see if this is included in the price of the design.

• What previous work have you done?
Ask to see examples of past websites they've completed - most designers have links to completed projects on their website. See how versatile and unique the designs are and if you like their style. Some designers will be more artistic than others so decide which style is right for your website. A good catalogue of previous work can also increase the trustworthiness of a website company as they'll be well established with plenty of satisfied customers.

• Can you work to my budget?
It's likely that you'll have a specific budget to create your website. When you've narrowed your search down to three or four agencies, let them know the size of your budget so you can see what you can get for your money. If you have a smaller budget then it might not stretch to hand drawn images or interactive features for example. Once you agree on a budget and a design then make sure you stick to it and don't be tempted to agree to extra features which could increase the total price of the website.

• Will we get on?
You don't necessarily have to ask a web design agency this directly but it's definitely something to consider as you narrow your search. See how they interact with you in emails, phone calls or in person if you meet them. Also note how available they are to speak to and if they return your messages. There's no point choosing a company who you don't feel comfortable with as you'll be unlikely to get the end result you desire.

Web Design Agency

If Your Website Was a Bridge, Would it Be the Golden Gate Bridge, Or Would People Fear to Cross?

I had the great pleasure the other day to undertake the Storey Bridge Climb in Brisbane, Australia with my father and a son. Whilst on the climb, and hearing about the tales of the bridge construction and maintenance, it occurred to me that building a website is alot like building a bridge. A bridge requires strong foundations, must be easily found, should give clear directions for travel, and must be clearly taking people to their intended destination. So, if your website was a bridge would it be a masterful construction like the Golden gate Bridge or the Sydney Harbour Bridge?

A bridge requires strong foundations. So does a website. What are the foundations of your website and how strong are they? The foundations of your website are the content that it is based around and the keywords that you build the content around. Do your keywords generate strong volumes of targeted traffic? Does your content support the keywords? Does your content tell your traffic that they are in the right location.

A bridge requires a strong network of roads that direct people onto the bridge. The road network should also be related to the intended travel destination of the people using the bridge. This road network also requires regular maintenance to ensure that the traffic will flow smoothly. These are the links to your website. Strong links that relate to the content and goals of your site will bring targeted traffic to your website. The links should be maintained on a regular basis. The aim of the links should be to bring targeted traffic to your website, not search engine rankings.

A bridge requires good signage to tell people where they are going to and what they are going to find when they get there. this is your on-site linking strategy and navigation. Does your on-site linking and navigation give people clear directions around your site. If your directions are poor you will lose people from your site who are unsure where to go or what they will find when they get there.

Finally a bridge has to go somewhere. There is a clear destination which is usually the other end of the bridge! And so must your website have a clear destination. What are people supposed to do when they are on your website. Are you building a list of contacts, do you want them to leave their details, are you selling a product, or are you just sharing information. When your website has a clear goal you will be able to track how effectively it performs and you will be able to test and improve the performance over time.

Finally a bridge needs ongoing maintenance and so does a website. You must maintain and build your content. Keep your site relevant to the changing marketplace. Grow your content. Grow your keyword list. Build more relevant links to your website. Test different onsite linking and navigation strategies. Measure how well your website achieves the goals you have for it. And then repeat the process.

If you build your website with strong foundations, give people clear directions and measure and maintain it on a regular basis your website will have a long and profitable lifetime. If you build your website and you neglect these essential elements or fail to maintain them your website will be a bridge to nowhere!

I am a freelance website designer providing professional website design services to small business. Have a look at my small business website design portfolio.

I design professional looking websites that fit with your business image. My website designs are both customer and search engine friendly. I will help you bring more traffic to your website and convert more of that traffic into loyal, happy clients.

Does Your Website Turn People Off?

Good web design is something that can make or break a business. If a website is designed wrong, people aren't going to stay let alone buy items from it. When it comes to turning customers off, here are some of the things that people aren't going to want to see in a website.

Annoying colors

One of the biggest turnoffs for people in a website is annoying colors. There are some colors that just make your eyes hurt. They may grab the attention of people, but there is good attention and bad attention. Annoying colors give a website bad attention.

Loud music

This is a turnoff for most people, unless it's teenagers. But consider not having loud music on the website or giving the visitors a way to turn it off. Giving them a choice may make they stay instead of leaving.

Hard to navigate

The last big turnoff for people when it comes to websites is having a hard time navigating the site. People want a site which is simple and which allows them to do what they need to do quickly and easily. They know that their time is limited and so they want to get their business done.

When you are designing your webpage, remember the turnoffs which are listed above. You will find that people are going to come back to your website more often and that they are going to be more likely to purchase from you. It's hard to believe what a difference a well made website can make.

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How to Build a Wildly Popular Authority Site in 2 Simple Steps That's Fun, FREE and Ranks Fast Too!

Who else want to build an authority site in a hurry. And no - I'm not talking about having to shell out primo bucks for some fancy pants software that promises to do it all for you overnight, after you shell out your kids college tuition to get there (and of course, never works anyway!)

What I'M referring to are using quick and easy, free tools that anyone can plug in, right now...and turn their simple, presently lonely site into a hub bub of activity, links, visitors and comments....and doing it in a hurry. Also - we're only going to use free tools to do it. Let's take a look.

Step #1: Set Up a free bloglines account that will track and update all of your RSS feeds, and topical or niche updates around the web. (note: You need to obviously tell it who and what to follow)

Step #2: Install the free browser, Flock - and use this for your authority site creation ( plus it's a great social networking browser to boot!)

Step #3: Every day, first thing in the morning, check your blog lines account, and look at the updated stories around the web on your topic. Go to the Websites of those that look interesting....and then right click, choose "blog this", and POST an snippet from the story to your blog, with a NEW title that you create...and an introductory blurb or paragraph about the snippet you grabbed.

Of course, flock will add an outgoing link automatically to the post, so the original source of the story gets a great link, and a full mention, which they love as well.

You? You build readers almost immediate search engine visibility, and a never ending source of fresh, updated content to add to your blog that people love and come back for, and for free.

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Site Designing For Your Niche

A common mistake that many web site owners make is "over designing" their sites. Let's use a fictitious example of a classic car replacement parts website as a case in point. This company has been in business for 10 years and they enjoy a strong catalog following. They want to increase their sales and expand their business by utilizing the Internet as an additional sales platform. Although not necessarily a home business per se, but a small family owned business that has been highly successful in offering post-war classic car replacement parts. The time has come to expand or stagnate.

The company begins to research web site designers and settles on one that has an impressive portfolio. Lots of flash animation and state-of-the-art design technique. After many weeks of information gathering of product photos and data, design meetings and cost discussions a site is born. It's even been optimized to rank well with the search engines.

The site has been indexed by the major search engines and receives a modest amount of traffic. The site designer assures them that it takes time to get correctly listed and rank well in the search results pages for their top keywords. Almost a year has passed and there is no appreciable increase in sales. The cost to build and maintain the site has not paid for itself.

Should they abandon the site and revert back to a catalog only business? The answer is no, no and no!

What they need to do is understand their internet customer base better. Here's what I would suggest as a consultant.

1. Immediately install site tracking software. This can be accomplished for free by using Google^© Analytics which is part of creating an AdWords^© account. This is pretty simple stuff. You get coding from Google and place it on every page of your site.

2. Create a keyword Advertising program through Google or Yahoo Marketing. This will help to drive traffic to the site and at the same time should help to defray some of the site costs.

3. Allow enough time to analyze site visitors. Another words, wait.

Let's say that by doing the above there is a large enough of a sample to analyze. What did we find?

A. There were hundreds of clicks that landed on the home page or the specific landing page but were abandoned right there. They never bought.

B. The sample showed that many viewers had lower resolution screens, older browser and older flash versions. This is important because of the flash animation on your site. Also the new versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome have many of these supporting features built in.

C. Viewer loyalty was low (They didn't come back) and average site time was very low as well as page depth (the total number of pages viewed.)

D. There was a high level of abandonment for those that did want to buy, but got to the shopping cart and then aborted before finalizing the sale. ( a form of buyers remorse)

This not what you want to see on a site that sells products that people need and want to buy, why else would they come to the site?

Why did so many viewers drop out after viewing the home page? Let' see if we can make some sense of it all. You know that buyers want your products because they have bought from your catalog very successfully. Then why didn't they buy from your site?

A possible and likely reason for some of the short stay issue could be in the site design. Sometimes simple is better. The reason is not everyone's computer has the latest operating, Internet and Flash software. Your site might not show well in older browser versions and consequently any scripting may cause additional problems. This is not to say that your potential customer is backward it may just mean that they have older computers and operating systems that won't display well. Many viewers get spooked right away if there are any oddities on a site.

Also consider that some one running and older Pentium PC or an older version of a Mac your site with all of its Flash and graphics may take a long time to load. This discourages customers as well and is a deterrent to viewing your site. It's important to understand your customer base first and then add some bells and whistles later. So what is the answer?

Begin by creating a simpler site that is easy for anyone to get around. After all your primary purpose is to open up your market and sell more products to a larger audience.

Make sure you are set up with some analytical software to evaluate your site. Google Analytics is a great choice because it can tell you so much about your viewers and buyers. It even has a function to understand all of the steps someone took before they bought one of your products. This is done through a function called goals and it is a powerful feature to this free service.

In closing, the smart choice is to start out slow and simple and be in the position to analyze everything that goes on in your site.

Rick Carbone is the Director/Publisher of http://www.HomeBusinessResearch.com one of the top home business sites on the Internet. HBR has been helping entrepreneurs start up and successfully manage online home based businesses since 1998.