Post about "Games"

Owning Your Own Web Site Is A Must

Owning your own website is a must if you are doing business
on the Internet.

There are so many factors involved in creating a web site
layout and or design that there is really no right or wrong
design.

A web site that may have looked clean and crisp in the
template stage can totally change when you add your text
and other content.

The saying – less is more, often applies where creating a web
page, by having a clean crisp design with minimal graphics
your site is quicker to load and easier to navigate around
and easier to read without the distraction of flashing
animated images and banners.

The resulting layout of a web site is often a product
of the content that is added to its pages.

This is where it is of the utmost importance to research
the focus of your site before you start work to create it.
The same applies if you are selling widgets, flowers, coins,
supplying information of marketing an Affiliated member
opportunity.

There are so many variables to keep in mind that it is best
to sit down with pen and paper to list all the items you will
or at least, what you want to place on your Web site.

Make a list of the topics, products or services you wish
to promote. This is important later when you start promoting
your web site in search engines.

Search engines give more importance to a page that is focused
on one topic for two reasons. Firstly because search engines
want to provide the most defined search results for their customers
and secondly if a page is about one topic or product you can
optimize your keywords and content, increasing the chance
of your page appearing at the top of search results.

For web sites that have between ten to twenty pages you can
use a button or text menu bar to link to all pages. When your
site starts to grow beyond 20 pages a button or text menu can
start to take over the page. With my ezine as an example I have
created sub menus for the achieves and other related groups of
products or information.

The next step is to create a small number (6 to 10) of product
or service groups. Then you can have these 6 to 10 groups
accessible from the main menu. You can either create a small
directory or second level pages for each group, or the other
alternative is to use drop down menus.

This is where you hover your cursor over a button or link
and a sub menu drops or scrolls down with the links for that
group of products or services. The drop down menus often
created using java script. Some templates come with the scripts
included or you can search for the scripts on the net.

The layout and design of your site should use the same template
to create every page to enable your visitors ease of locating the
product and services they are searching for.

The most user friendly color for the page back ground is white
with black text. White being a neutral color and black being
a contrast.

Using a clear easy to read font is important too. Pages that use
Italics are harder to read. By all means use Italics to highlight
a quote or to make a point. The same applies to bold, colored
and underlined text, use sparingly. Pages that over use bold
and multi colored text can look very amateurish.

The overall design should enhance the information you are
providing for your site visitor. Too many animations and different
colors also distract people.

Many newer high profile, high traffic sites are using less graphics
at the top of their pages. Usually there will be a logo in the top left
corner of the page as this is the first area of the page most people
see. Second they see the main headline in the center of the page
and from there they either look up to the top right corner or scroll
down the content of the page.

There are some very clever graphics used on Web sites, but it
is generally thought that a simple logo or easy to read company
name will be retained by more sites visitors than a more complex
one.

Using a simple header (logo – Company Name) at the top of your
web site is also of a higher name branding value.

Even the placing of the menu bar can have an effect. There are
No set rules here, the buttons or links can be places at the right
or left side of the page or across the top or a combination of both.
Many sites also have a number of text links at the bottom of the
page, usually company information and disclaimers etc.

Make sure you also include a site map containing links to every
page on your site. The propose is to assist search engines finding
all your pages to spider and for your site visitors so they don’t get
lost. Your site map link should be easily found.

The web site layout and design is usually arrived at by the site
owner and or webmaster and as we are all individuals we all have
our personal color preferences, likes and dislikes. This being the
case, do some home work and compare your design with other
Web sites selling or promoting similar products and services.

Make sure your theme falls in line with other similar sites.
If you are going to sell home made chocolates from your web
site, I would suggest rather than showing a closed chocolate
box, you would be better advised to show a person holding
an open box with a few chocolates missing and the person
taking a bite of a chocolate with a big smile on their face.
This gives you a subliminal message of how yummy
the chocolates are and will even get your mouth watering.

A picture can express a thousand words, but too many
pictures on your site can be distracting.

My conclusion on good web site layout and design will
be different to yours and I don’t have any problems with that.
But the end result of your web site will tell the tale when you
check the sales you make.

In all this there is ONE point I wish to make very clear
to you and that is, you cannot in all honesty promote any
product or service on the Internet to its full potential market
without owning your own Domain Name and Web site

Reason Number One.

Search Engines, If you are promoting anything on the Internet
you need to have your site listed as it is very hard or almost
impossible to list an affiliated member site.

Reason Number Two.

With the ISP’s filtering or dumping tons of email every day you
do not know if the person or prospect you are writing to will
receive your email or if their ISP will filter and delete or dump it.
On the other side is that email being sent to you is also being filtered
so any email even from a family member or business contact may
be filtered, never to be seen again.

Domain or web site names are under nine dollars at Godaddy.com

ItsYourNet offers very affordable hosting of your website with all
the bells and whistles Including unlimited email aliases and
a templated web site builder. ItsYourNet.co.nz

So for less than forty five dollars per year or eighty three cents a week.

How or where else can you get better advertising exposure
for 83 cents a week that you have full control of.

May all your Web site promotions be successful.

Home Based Business and the Importance of Marketing Skills and Tools

Sound knowledge on how to market a business is necessary to reach the target customer group. The ability to communicate with information of the product/service to the prospects is of paramount importance in business. Home based business owners must work to leverage all forms of marketing tools to survive difficult economic conditions.The marketing requirements for a business venture are unique and require constant innovation. A clear marketing strategy must be devised and followed up to achieve business objectives.Business Marketing Plans:Regular analysis of competitors is essential to devise how to effectively deliver products and services. Innovative marketing tools must be employed to achieve a competitive edge and a sustainable business model.Product marketing should be developed in lieu of customer requirements. Home based business owners often struggle with limited budgets for promotional activities.Efficient Marketing Tools:Search engine marketing can be a great place to initiate brand development strategies. They work by sending keyword traffic to a website which can be further converted into sales. They are cost effective and provide great returns on investment.Pay per click search engines can be employed to derive quality traffic. Pay per click alternatives offer low cost advertising services. There are many alternatives to Pay Per Click campaigns and they provide strong consistent results with flat low cost monthly rentals. Affiliate programs offer returns on investment with every sale. They are more popular than the performance based businesses.Cost Effective Marketing Strategies:E-mail marketing can help bring clients for business owners. It is fast, easy and does not require heavy investment. Repeat and referral sales can be brought about by communicating with customers.E- Mail marketing works for any type of home based business. Simple e-mail newsletters can be created to target potential customers. Innovative content ideas can create a strong product impression. Promotional emails work to stimulate demand for the concerned product or service.Free sample, discount coupons and free consultation are some of the popular e-mail marketing promotional campaigns. Marketing is essential to reach out to contacts and prospects to let them know that you are open for business.Necessary Promotional Skills:Business details can be added to the bottom of a mail with information about the service offered. This can be a form of effective communication for selling the products or services. Messenger services for live chat facilities can be employed for valuable communication with customers. Messenger services provide for direct customer contact which is a critical component of business communication needs.Essential Brand Management:Brand development is critical and occurs with focused marketing plans. Marketing investments should never be concentrated and applied only toward tested avenues. Ideal marketing plans grow with the business and are marked with consistency.The brand building process involves all the activities of a business venture. The market position of a product is determined by the information published, developed and communicated. Marketing is essential for a home based business to reach out to customers and prospects with information about the product or service offered.

Internet Home Based Business – Helping Your Community

The move to globalisation has increased local involvement in community programs aimed at bettering quality of life and education and teaching disaster management techniques. Having an internet home based business allows your resources and time to contribute to your community. The community involvement also boosts your viewer base of your site and encourages other areas to learn from your community.Define your passion
Internet home based business gives you the flexibility of working from wherever you are. All you need is a computer and a phone that allows access to the web. Urgent messages can be immediately replied to even as you carry out your community work. Whether you are interested in teaching or arranging medical care for your community, your business model supports your interest. In case you have work that is deadline driven, you can either choose to do it yourself by managing your time or outsource it to a third party. You can define how you would like to support your community and work out a feasible time schedule that considers your work requirements.Learn about community programs
Once you have decided to spend some time on community development and have a fair idea about what you would like to do, find out what is currently available. Your internet home based business demands should be clear to you. Make sure that you are able to give first priority to your business requirements, lest you turn away customers. You will have access to community members through your business and this will help you to know about ongoing work and requirements in the community development program.Pace your time
Running an Internet home based business is time consuming. You have to work out affiliate programs, create marketing material, and keep track on visits to your site and control costs. However, if you have a long-held dream of being part or leading a community initiative, this is a good way to achieve the goal. The flexibility of your business allows you the time to move away from your desk and carry out the work that you have planned for yourself even as you continue to earn.Increase Community Involvement
Talk about your community work and the positive effects you are seeing in the community. You can utilise your website to highlight your community initiatives to your customers and viewers. A business that gives time to societal development is perceived as having a high ethical base and attracts more people towards it. Corporate social responsibility requires that corporate houses involve themselves in work towards social enhancement. Since you are known due to your internet home based business, you can write a blog about the work that is being done, your involvement and the nature of work that is pending to be done. Your blog doubles up as a source of intelligence for other communities and also increases local community involvement. You can also increase the interest in your business and community work by writing articles about your belief system and how it helps you straddle two worlds.