The hardest client

The hardest client that we have worked for kept changing their
mind about how they wanted their site to look. They kept
changing their keywords and their content. They made my team
search for hours to find the perfect images, only to decide that
the images didn’t quite feel quite right. The hardest project
that we have ever taken part in was our own site redesign. The
following is a guide to redesigning for your own web design
company.

Step one: Sit down with coffee and a mirror

The first step that I would advise is to sit down with a fresh
cup of coffee and a shaving mirror. Remember all those questions
that you ask prospective clients? Well look in the mirror and
ask yourself them. Even better, if you have a project planner
fill it out at the same time.

Step two: Forget who you are designing for

It might sound like an odd thing to write, but forget that you
are designing for yourself. Look at all the information that is
on the sheet of paper only. Look to see what the website goal
is; look to see if there are any colour scheme requests. Then
once you have thought about it and made all the notes that you
need, take a break.

Step three: Research and scribbling

Take the time to research, look for designs that you like, look
for colour patterns that work well together. Don’t forget your
pencil and paper for sketching out ideas.

Step four: Actually using your computer

Fire up that graphic editing programme and start creating a
digital version of your design.

Step five: Code

Now we you can do what you were born to do - code.

Step six: Review

Next you need to take your new design to the masses to see which
they prefer more. Post on a forum, go to the local hip coffee
shop, your grandmas anywhere that isn’t your office and ask
which they like more (after all, designers don’t come to you to
get their website built, it’s Joe public who does).

Step seven: Publish

So the guy with the goatee and sunglasses drinking a triple
espresso, “DextersLab172″ and your grandma all preferred your
new design? In that case your mission is complete, upload your
new site to your server and feel happy that you survived the
redesign of your company site.

What not to do:

Think “oh I am a web designer, I will just throw something
together and hope it turns out nice” because believe me, you
will be back at the drawing board more times than you care to
remember. Good forward planning always triumphs over trial and
error.

Written by Paul Gray - Director of Net Studios

Salehoo: Buy Led Strobe Lights Wholesale
How can you deal or contact potential suppliers if they are halfway around the globe? The internet, of course. Do a little search, find out about other countries’ economy, what commodities they produce. Or to keep things simple, search for suppliers that have posted their offers to sell on the internet. I am sure you can find one in no time, but, you must always be alert and be wary of possible fraud. Browse through my other articles to learn more and prevent yourself from being a fraud victim. So I decided to let people in on the Salehoo truth or for that matter any premium wholesale or drop ship directory.

Entrepreneurs working from home find it to be an apt Online resource to buy products at wholesale prices and then sell them at retail prices thus making a profit Once you have attracted wholesale buyers to you the next step is engaging them. From the outset Salehoo has been constantly adding new suppliers and verifying them to provide a comprehensive database

Salehoo Wholesale Curtains Verticals2C Drapes Overstock2C Closeout:
One strong benefit I almost left out, is that with a wholesale Salehoo site, you can show potential customers all your wholesale products without having to print a catalog or visit their stores. If they are interested an item, you can always deliver to their stores, but at point you are making an actual sale, instead of just spending time on a sales call. Think of all the time and money you will save, and the extra profits you will make, by taking your wholesale business online.

You also get a list of top secret drop shippers. Are you planning a new business venture? Do you want to get in touch with wholesalers online? Looking for ways to make a huge profit in your business? If you answered yes then you are likely to be an ambitious aspiring and enthusiastic business owner or planning to start up your own business. See Salehoo Review.

Five years ago it was nice but not mandatory for owners of small to mid-size businesses to have a web site in order successfully market their company. Unless e-commerce was a potential source of revenue, you could choose if and when to join the Internet set. That is no longer true.

Today businesses of all sizes, including independent consultants, find it nearly impossible to remain competitive without a presence on the web. Potential clients ask for your web site address because it gives them a non-invasive way to learn more about you and your business. A well-designed and developed web site offers more than just products and services, it can be a great starting point to building your brand and developing a relationship with potential clients by giving insight into the organization, its core values and its personality. It’s not an issue of when to start on your web site, you already know that you need one now. The problem is how to get started.

Here are four steps that will help you evaluate what you need. Consider each before you begin interviewing web designers; professional marketing and design groups should ask you these same issues and offer to help you work through the process. If they don’t, if they go first to a package price, buyer beware. Your web site may not reflect your company brand and might not give your customers what they need from your site.

Step 1: Know how a web site will support your marketing plan
Put into writing your thoughts on company philosophy, all marketing efforts being used and other aspects of your company’s brand. Evaluate the image you currently are projecting and how it compares to your competitors. If you have a written marketing plan, share that with your designer. Know who the main user of your site will be and understand their web viewing needs.

Web sites should offer business solutions, so knowing where you are and where you want to go are critical to developing a successful site that supports your brand. Understanding your customers or the end user of your site and their expectations will determine key factors like color, style and font, images used, technology supported. Building a complex site for a lo-tech end user is a misuse of assets. Conversely you won’t be able to compete against hi-end sites if yours fails to perform at a similar level. Talk all of this through with your web and marketing teams.

Step 2: Determine your site’s value
Ranges are fine, but establish a value for the site. Notice I said value and not price—how important to your business will this web site become? Based on the research you did in Step 1, you can make a sound decision on the value your site will give to your customers and how it may directly affect sales results. This allows you to determine an appropriate investment levels so you can better evaluate the estimates you will be given for web development.

Step 3: Envision your web site at its best
Consider what your ultimate dream machine web site would look like and how it would operate. Evaluate all kinds of sites not just those of competitors; look for images, ease of use, content. Bring likes and dislikes to your design team. Decide if your site will be used to drive retail sales now or in the future and the designers can help determine how that might be accomplished.

By discussing where you want to be, a web designer can build your first site with long-range goals in mind. A costly mistake many people make is buying the least expensive package, using a templated and sometimes restricted design or getting the bare minimum site available. Usually those sites cannot be easily adapted and in order to grow the site you have to start fresh.

Step 4: Build each web page on paper first
I like to work with clients to think through, and put on paper, how every web page will work—content, function, navigation, images, links, databases. This allows us to estimate the cost of the site and it helps clients choose between must-haves, good-to-haves and great but not necessary pages and accessories. This is where you can really start to see the site developing.

Now it’s time to design
Using all the information gathered, your web design team will begin to create visual elements, write copy and formulate the form and function of your site. The look of your site, all the visual elements that will make it distinctly yours, begin now. Your research and time spent meeting with the design team will help give you the web site that effectively communicates with your customers, offers business solutions and supports your brand. The perfect web site!

Claudia Trusty develops strong marketing and branding messages that drive results for small and mid-size companies. For twenty years Trusty and Company has produced communication solutions for clients in retail and service industries. Visit them on the web at
http://trustyandcompany.com/.

If you have spent any time online in the last ten years, I am sure you have heard the phrase “content is king.” I first heard the phrase myself in 1996 during an undergraduate computer class at my beloved alma mater, Cornell College, (GO RAMS!). We were discussing a recent speech given by Microsoft founder Bill Gates titled of all things “content is king.” During the speech Mr. Gates made one, of what would become many, prescient predictions about the Internet, when he stated that “content is where I expect most of the real money on the Internet will be made (Gates).”

As any reliable, competent SEO practitioner will tell you today, the content used to write a site is one of the single greatest factors in obtaining high-quality search rankings across a variety of engines. Sites with detailed product or service information covering their specific niche are more successful online. What do they have in common? All of them realize that content drives the web and thus their site. The most successful sites focus on a multi-pronged “successful content strategy” that makes use of most, if not all, of the following simple content strategies:

1. Write content that is tailored to your audience, not to you.

If you read your site copy and find lots of self-focused verbiage (us, our, we) as opposed to more customer friendly language (you, your), then your content isn’t being written with your audience in mind. This is by far the single most common mistake editors make when writing their site marketing copy. Don’t forget your audience. Site content needs to speak to the site visitor, and you can’t do that in first-person.

2. Focus on building useful research and information content.

A client of mine had a comics-related retail website that contained all of 4 pages. He pretty much threw up a page of items for sale with an “about us” page, and a plea to contact him for more product info, and waited for the orders to come in. Three months and two orders later, he finally realized something was wrong. After scrapping his entire site and having Media Wyse design a new site around detailed product info, and content rich pages covering the current comics-related landscape, the site is well on its way to being profitable. Don’t make his mistakes. Add plenty of product content and on-point research to your site right out of the gate and update it regularly. Your audience will thank you for it.

3. Write your content for the site visitor, not for the search engine.

Obviously the goal for your site and for each of its pages is to rank high in the search engines by optimizing your pages with select keywords whenever possible. However, very seldom will you be successful if you attempt to optimize your site content while writing it for your visitors at the same time. To accomplish both goals, follow this simple tip; search engines index as many as 500 words on each page they spider. Make sure your pages have a minimum of 500 words of content and appeal to your reader. Then go back and “mildly” optimize your pages around 1-2 keyword phrases each.

4. Write your content to elicit an emotional response.

Are you passionate about your web site? Does your site content communicate this to your audience? If not, you’re missing out on a valuable tool to market your product or service. Make sure to write your site content with strong “call-to-actions” whenever possible. “Buy me now;” “contact me for more information;” “ask me a question.” Don’t leave any doubt in your audience what you expect from them. If you don’t tell them what you want them to do on your site, they won’t do it.

5. Vary your content choices to heighten visitor site interaction.

Each page of your site is a unique entry and exit point for visitors to view your content. Thus, each page of your content-rich site should be varied and engaging to the reader. Using different forms of content throughout your site is an extremely effective way to encourage repeat visits and benefit from word-of-month marketing from satisfied users. To accomplish this, design pages containing FAQ’s, step-by-step product tutorials, interactive video content, online tools, and/or site specific content links. Mix these pages up and watch your site referrals skyrocket.

Any and all of these content choices, used with the interests of your audience clearly in mind, will go a long way to ensuring the success of your content strategy and your site in general. In the words of Bill Gates, “those sites that succeed will propel the Internet forward as a marketplace of ideas, experiences, and products….a marketplace of content (Gates).”

Gates, Bill. “Content is King.” 03 1996. 17 Apr 2006 <http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/columns/1996essay/essay960103.asp>.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SEO marketing professional Casey Markee is president of San Diego, CA, based SEO firm Media Wyse. Casey has over 7 yrs. of experience within the online marketing arena and holds graduate degrees in Marketing & E-Commerce. A Qualified Adwords Professional with Google, Casey’s current client list boasts some of the top companies in San Diego including world-renown diamond retailer, The Diamond Source. Contact him today through http://www.MediaWyse.com with your SEO questions or assistance on your upcoming campaign.