I Do Web Marketing

This is a guest post by Noel Addison Agnote of NDIC.

Web development industry has been around for decades. And all these years, many client-web designer relationships are ruined because both parties failed to meet the expectations of one another. Sometimes the web development team who are responsible to accomplish the job could not grasp what their client wants for the project. Most often, the business owners would come up with impossible requirements and demands that the assigned development team cannot render without making the website look ridiculous and appear like it has been created unprofessionally.

If you wish to have a good online presence through a website, your first step to take is find the most qualified and trusted web development company to create your website. Whether you are dealing with a professional web designer or a freelancers having misunderstanding and problems with the team you hired is inevitable. These problems often lead to frustration, waste of money and time on both parties involved.

One of the major problems that most businesses come across is that they don’t exactly know how much building a website for their business would cost. Unfortunately, there is no standard rate that web development companies can follow when it comes to pricing every project. Certainly, there are so many things to consider in determining the price of a website like the platform that will be utilized, whether a custom drawing would be required, and the timeframe for the project that the client has set.

To prevent this problem from happening, make sure that you make the web development company that you hired understand just how much you are willing to pay for the creation of the website for your business. And since most business owners are not really aware of the price for the website that they want, it would be best that they start asking for the price or quote of the project. You can ask people that you know who have already built a website for their business or you can post your question on forums that are related to web design. You can also contact web development companies online and ask for quotations.

Know all the things that will be involved in the project and how much it would cost. Expect that the more pages you want for your website, the higher the cost would be. Moreover, better anticipate for higher charge if you desire for a more knotty and complex website design.

Web development is not just about design and how it was built. It also includes security matters. Just if you are not aware yet, let me inform you that the Web is populated by troublemakers who simply love destroying the web and the websites residing in it. These people are not doing it for money they just feel that devastating the web is a fun activity to do and consider it as a plain game or exercise. Hence, you have to ensure that your website is secured. Also, have the web design company conduct a regular back up process. So that even if your server gets hacked, you can effortlessly bring your site back and running again in no time since you restored all the necessary files backed up.

Also listen to what the web development has to say, remember that they are the ones who knows more about the technicalities of web development process. Let them educate you about how the project will be done. Furthermore, the company might need your participation in the process of building the website, be cooperative. Constantly ask for the opinion of other webmasters whatever the web development team is proposing. There are companies, thought they are legitimate, who only wants to get money from their clients and would offer for a website redesigning even if it is not actually needed.

Noel Addison Agnote is a writing enthusiast and an online marketer. He is a part of NDIC, Santa Barbara’s premiere web design and web marketing firm. Visit NDIC to learn how to establish a good online presence for your business.

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

This is a guest post by Noel Addison Agnote of NDIC.

Creepy Self-Promotion

You know the climactic part of every movie where the prey is chased by the criminal or monster everywhere they go.  The victim attempts to hide everywhere to escape from the villain but the monster would always appear right on their face. Most businesses care so much about branding, want to be noticed and leave a great impression on the web. Well, there is nothing wrong about branding. In fact, it is an essential factor in building solid foundation for an effective marketing strategy. However, when you overexert your branding efforts you give a bad impression to your visitors and made them feel that everything is just about you, you, you and you. And nothing scares your visitors most when you bombard them with things which basically represent you.  So limit your advertisements or any direct self-promotion. Instead, reach out to your audience by educating and giving them information related to your niche. Reaching out to your audience is different from haunting them.

Despicable Web Navigation

People hate waiting. Poor website navigation could discourage potential clients. Website is a great representation of your business and it is expected to instantly send the message to your target audience as they land to your page. A good website should have a good and consistent navigation. It is essential in building an accessible and usable website.

Loathsome Content Layout

Content and layout is very important in a website. It is the primary reason why users visit your page and come back. Your content layout has to be simple so it will be easier for you to modify things once you wish to do some changes in your site. It is also recommended that you use readable and legible fonts so people can effortlessly read your content. Furthermore, it is necessary that you choose the right color for you website. Your choice of color must give your visitors a good impression and aid your website in relaying the information to your visitors.

Outrageous use of images and animations

Anything that is too much is not good. Too much images and animations in your websites could be annoying for your visitors. Yes, using images gives additional appeal to your website and grab the attention of more visitors conversely it could create distraction to your readers. Moreover, animation and flash are great to capture attention yet it affects usability of the website. It slows down the loading time of a website and scares away potential clients.

Dreadful Music on Website

Music is soothing and good but not for your website. Background music makes your website look unprofessional and lessens the credibility of your business. Also, not everyone have the same taste in music. Maybe the music that you have added in your website pleases you but it might abhor other people. If you think the music is really needed for your website, for example you are owning a music, personal or band web site make sure that your visitors have the option to pause or stop it from playing.

Noel Addison Agnote is a writing enthusiast and an online marketer. He is a part of NDIC, Santa Barbara’s premiere web design and web marketing firm. Visit NDIC to learn how to establish a good online presence for your business.

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

This is a guest post from Sachin of Web Profits. If you are interested in providing a guest post, please contact me.

Many people do not realise how big of an industry social media marketing, online marketing and other related professions, such as SEO (search engine optimisation) have become. Getting educated for these industries is tricky enough in itself. The best in any industry are those who study, learn and create well before there is somewhere to study. That being said, private institutions seem to be the best place to learn for these careers. It is difficult to find a degree in Facebook, for example. So what does it take to be a part of these exciting new industries?

• User Experience. Knowing social media, knowing all those sites, and having your own experience is the best way to know anything to do with online marketing. Unlike many other media industries, the options, strategies and methods are varied, many and complex. The best way to understand what is going on is to be a part of it. Your own research and reading will take you further than most studies.

• Studies. Online marketing could be described as the latest version of public relations – just it is on a very big scale. If you are looking for some background or foundation studies to support your career move, a degree in communications is worth a look at. There are those private institutions that are already developing more specialised study programs. As per usual, the USA is leading the way.

• Working Style. Anyone who works in media, or any other creative type industry knows there are long hours. At the same time, there are long hours in anything we want to do well in. We thought computers were going to give us more free time. That is obviously not the case. In other words, it is not the hours that are the issue. Working in a creative environment takes a fresh and open attitude towards working. Those who work best in these industries know a flower only grows when it is given water and sunshine. Encouragement and positivity will allow you and everyone else to get the most out of what they do. It is not always pressure that delivers, especially when we are talking about creativity.

• Getting Experience. There are so many fields we can apply to online marketing, and particularly social media marketing. Making the switch to these new industries might not be as difficult as you think. Spending 3 years to get a new degree might not be a sensible option in a field that is so new and fresh. Facebook marketing did not exist only a few years ago. It might just be your communication skills and your current following that make all the difference. Again, user experience and self-education are still the best ways to go.

Those who specialise in SEO (search engine optimisation) are the true online marketers. This is actually the basis of many of the other fields of online marketing. Social media marketing, Facebook marketing, Twitter marketing and now, Google+ marketing are areas those professionals have included in their portfolios. You might have more knowledge than you think. Careers come and go, but you can be assured, online marketing is here to stay.

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

This is a guest blog post from Wes Towers, a loyal reader of the I Do Web Marketing blog who operates Omnific Design.

As a trained graphic designer who moved into web design in 2000, I known our clients in both fields are looking for the same result. They want a design that is not only attractive but engaging and functional especially when it comes to website design. The reason is obvious, an appealing website catches the eye, sustains attention and causes a response. I want to be extremely clear here, beauty is not the only aspect of good web design. If you want a great web design, you must consider usability, structure and accessibility.

Proper coding should be a given, in any website. Sadly, most website coding I look at is riddled with errors which would be hurting not only the way the site displays in some browsers but it would also be having a massive impact on the search engine optimisation.

Code Semantics… Huh… How can that help?

Now for a little techy stuff. If you are not a coder, stick with me on this. You should be able to pick up enough info here to ensure your website coder knows what he is doing.

Make sure you use proper code semantics within your website. One of the best things about using semantic code is it performs well when it comes to search engines. When search engine spiders crawl your web pages, they don’t look at it like humans do. They rely on the code, text and formatting to understand what is important within a web page. Give them what they want and structure you code right. These spiders do their best to learn more about your site through the tags contained in the codes. For example, you MUST use header tags <h1> and <h2> so the search engines understand these are heading and can easily identify what the page is about based on words used in headings.

Semantics are also responsible for the accessibility of your website. If you follow the basic principles of code semantics as well as accessibility, you will be able to structure your content so humans and search engines can both understand your content. You should consider people with special needs when having a website coded. For example, there are speech browsers for the blind and the Alt tags for images are incredibly important here.

In a nut-shell, code semantics allow you to have cleaner code. This means your download time will be faster because the size of your page files will be smaller. If you are a web designer who is not dependent on WYSIWYG programs for web design, then using semantics for your coding is the best recourse for you when it comes to updating and editing your website.

Graphic Design Melbourne specialist, Wes Towers invites you to learn more about marketing, branding, graphic design and web design and how they can help in your business. Check out www.omnificdesign.com.au for more resources and free ebooks.

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

Although web design is a creative profession, there are rules within which this creativity has to be contained. The site you’re designing has to be standardized not just because it should be viewable with any kind of browser and conform to other written and unwritten policies of the web, but also because it has to be tailored according to the needs and preferences of those who use it the most. There are some sites that demand a greater amount of customization than others – corporate sites that exist only for PR purposes and to provide general information can be designed according to the whims of the owners and/or the designer; however, when you’re designing a site that sells services or products, you need to ensure that it’s the users of the site who are most comfortable with its design.

• The first and foremost aspect of importance is that of security – if you don’t provide a secure and trusted portal through which customers can pay for goods and services using their credit cards and bank accounts, people are never going to return to your online store. The thing about the Internet is that there is a great deal of anonymity involved; so to establish your credentials, it is essential that you build trust in your customers. And the only way to do this is by providing a safe portal that they can use to shop from the comfort of the homes.
• E-commerce sites must be tailored to shoppers’ convenience, and buying products must be easy – if they cannot find product information easily, if adding and removing products to and from the shopping cart are not straightforward tasks, and if links and buttons are not clearly visible and marked unambiguously, they are likely to go to the next e-commerce site to continue their shopping. So if you don’t offer products and services that are unique, you must ensure that you differentiate your site and offer quality as a unique aspect, one that converts the online equivalent of window shoppers into regular buyers.
• Sites that sell products must have pictures that are of good quality, sometimes featuring the product from different angles – shoppers like to know what they’re getting before they click on the payment link. However, photos increase the loading time of a site, so you need to find the ideal compromise between the quality of the pictures and their loading time if you want your visitors to enjoy their shopping experience.
• I’ve seen some e-commerce sites that adopted dodgy practices when it comes to price – the price on the product page is different from the one shown on the checkout page, and if the shopper doesn’t double check, they’re in for a surprise when they receive their credit card bill. While pricing display and policy may have nothing to do with website design, when a site adopts spurious practices that are bordering on unethical, it reflects on every aspect of the site, right down to the design.
• And finally, search options must be clearly defined on a good e-commerce site – the main advantage when you shop online is that you can do so from the convenience of your home. And if you don’t facilitate easy search options so that shoppers can find what they’re looking for, you’re bound to lose visitors and the site is bound to lose customers.

Each site has different creation rules, most of which are unwritten but must be implicitly understood and followed. And when it comes to e-commerce sites, if you goof up, it means you lose out on more than just traffic.

By-line:

This guest post is contributed by Bailey Digger, she writes on the topic of web design degree programs . She welcomes your comments at her email id: Baileyd@webdesigndegree.com.

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

It is easy to think that all people view websites in the same manner. It took me awhile to learn that every one is different, and therefore everyone tends to view web pages different as well. Just because I know where to find a link, or the site structure makes sense to me, it may not always make sense to the viewer.

Often times when I am creating a website, I have to stop and think about the viewer who will be looking at the site. It’s important to keep this in mind from the very beginning. Not only in the design aspect, but in terms of the development of the site as well. Think of your potential customers. What are they looking for?

Utilizing drop down menus can be an effective space saving tool. However, be sure that your links are organized correctly. Placing your products under your “About Us” drop down menu, might not be the best thing to do. You want to make things easily accessible to your potential customers. Your products and services should be something that stands out on the page. Don’t just use a textual link, you may want to also enhance the link with an image in the body of the main page as well. From an SEO standpoint, you want to make sure you also provide textual links as well, so that search engines know how to crawl your site.

In a past post, I mentioned things to avoid when developing your web site. You also want to follow those rules as well, to avoid just immediately losing potential customers.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

So your business needs a web page, and you think you’re up for the task. Afterall, there are billions of websites on the web, surely you can make one, right? Well, if you can work your way around the internet, odds are, you can also put up a website. There are hosts, which will make it relatively easy for you and you will be given a generic looking template that is used on thousands of various websites. The problem for you is, this is for your business, and you always want to make a good first impression. You only have one shot to make your first impression, and this is why I always advise customers to hire a professional, whether it is Novel Concept Studio or not.

A good web designer is worth their weight in gold. You will save literally hundreds of hours of learning the trade. Not only your own time investment, but if you hire a friend so that you can get it done cheaply, it may cost you later in terms of mistakes and missed opportunities. Also, if the web pages are not put together properly search engines may have difficulty “crawling” your website. Meaning, you won’t be getting good search results.

Your budget will obviously affect your decision. It is important to remember that if your website requires such things as flash, or e-commerce capabilities, you are looking at a very heavy time sink for your developer. If you have absolutely zero money, you may be able to find a quality designer that will share in revenue, but the odds of finding a quality web designer with no money are pretty slim. You will be forced to use a student, or someone very new to the field who needs something to showcase in their own profile. The old adage, “you get what you pay for,” still holds true.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of web designers out there. So how can you tell a good one from a bad one? Well, quite frankly, you want to look at their profile. If, for some reason, they do not have a profile available online, then ask for a few of the URL’s of sites they have developed. Take a look at those sites. Are they professional? Do they have clean layouts, with good color schemes and typography? These are important factors in your decision. Another important factor in your decision should be how well they communicate. I know at Novel Concept Studio we take great pride in responding to our customers immediately. However, there are several developers out there who take several days to respond, if at all! This, in my opinion, is unprofessional and shows you what kind of developer you’re dealing with.

Doing a website yourself will provide you with invaluable experience that can be used time and time again. However, if this is your first website and it relates directly to your business, then I highly recommend hiring a professional.

It’s a new month, and Novel Concept Studio has been hard at work. We have a few major announcements!

First and foremost, our website at www.novelconceptstudio.com has been COMPLETELY rebuilt. The new website is powered using the Joomla CMS. This gives the company greater flexibility moving forward and is something the company has been working towards for awhile.

The next major announcement is the fact that Novel Concept Studio will be providing web hosting solutions at great prices. This hosting will be backed by Host Gator, a reputable web hosting firm with many awards under their belts. Because of they will be utilizing Host Gator’s servers, Novel Concept Studio can offer the same premium hosting but at a cheaper rate! Great news for anyone or any business in need of a web hosting solution. Details on the web hosting options are being finalized and an official announcement will be coming shortly.

Lastly, and certainly not least, is the announcement of the Online Digital Mall (www.onlinedigitalmall.com). This Online Digital Mall is owned by Novel Concept Studio. It is a social networking site that will bring buyers and sellers together in a unique social atmosphere. Businesses will also be able to create listings on the web site for a reasonable fee of $60. This ad is placed on the site for 6 months and will be in front of people searching for your type of business/product!

We’re proud of what these options bring to the table. All of them should help to enhance our goal of becoming a premier web site management and marketing firm.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

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Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.

As a web development firm, we are often approached by clients with things that they are wanting on their website. They want a large image in the middle, with music playing in the background with a yellow, red, and pink color scheme. They want pop up advertising on every page to “catch customer’s attention.” If customer’s are dead set on this, then we will kindly turn them away. Quite frankly, we don’t want our name being associated with a website that is looked upon as an annoyance.

There are a handful of issues to avoid when developing your website, and we are going to cover some of them here:

Background Music
Believe it or not, not everyone likes your choice of music. This also can contribute to slow load times. This is a big no-no, especially if there is no stop or pause ability.

Pop-ups
No, they don’t grab your customer’s attention. In fact, web surfers can’t close them soon enough and will just immediately leave your site. They may even worry that your site has infected them with spyware. Besides, many pop-up ads are now blocked automatically via their browser or pop up blocking software.

Large Graphics/Images
These image files usually take up a lot of space, and cause slow load times. It is suggested that you break up this image into several smaller images. If you have Photoshop, try the slicing feature.

Frames
There is not a bigger sign of an old web page than one that utilizes frames. These are no longer an acceptable format for your site. Bookmarking/Printing becomes impossible. Not only that, but pages found on the web containing frames, will not contain any navigational features as those are apart of another frame.

Horizontally/Vertically Scrolling Pages
Research has shown that visitors that need to scroll to see your page’s information typically will not view more than what is on display. Avoid long scrolling pages, and break them up into different links if need be.

Unruly Backgrounds
Nice backgrounds may make you stand out, but for all the wrong reasons. You do not want your background overtaking your actual web page.

Poor Navigation
If visitors cannot find the information they are looking for, they will go to another web site to find this information. Make everything clearly defined and easy to find.

Appropriate Color Scheme
I know red, yello, and purple are colors of the rainbow, but that doesn’t mean they will look good on your web page. You need to stick to a color scheme. There are plenty of web sites out there to get ideas from and even tools available to help you choose color schemes.

An important thing to consider for your web site, is the hosting provider you will be using. There are literally hundreds of thousands of web hosting providers. So, how in the world do you figure out which is best for you?

Free Isn’t Always Better
Lets start off this discussion by discussing free hosting solutions. There are several free hosting providers, but I do not suggest them. I don’t suggest them because they are usually limited in the amount of services they offer. Meaning, they may not allow for .php files, or allow you to set up databases. They also will restrict the disk space you can utilize, and they will also limit the amount of visitors that can view your page (bandwidth). Most often, they also require large banner ads to be displayed on your web site. These appear very unprofessional and not something I suggest.

Please Press 1 For English
Most hosting providers nowadays are in the $4 to $10 a month range. There are several factors you should consider. Number one, do they have a contact phone number? Believe it or not, there are several hosts that don’t even have a number listed. Should you have issues, you need to know someone will be there to take care of them. If they do provide a number, are you speaking with somebody or are you leaving a voicemail. If you leave a voicemail, how long does it take them to respond?

What do they offer?
Another thing to consider are the services they are offering. How much bandwidth are you allowed? What kind of disk space are you given? If you have not registered a domain as of yet, is this something you can do through their site? How many email accounts are you allowed, if any? Do they support common file extensions such as php, asp, or mysql databases? Obviously, the more services they offer the better.

Father Knows Best, and HostGator Delivers
Now having said that, you may be wondering the host I personally recommend. I can say with confidence that HostGator is who I recommend to all of my clients. They have superior customer service, their uptime is nearly 100%, they offer UNLIMITED bandwidth and diskspace! All of this for as low as $5.95 should you go with their three year hosting plan. 

Be sure and subscribe for the latest web marketing strategies and updates!

Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.