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How to Design A User-Friendly Web Site

June 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you build it, they will come. This slogan used to be the mantra of website publishers and they were right! However, this was true only during the infancy of the world wide web. Nowadays, all sorts of gimmicks and strategies are deployed by website publishers to be able to capture the interest of visitors.

Capturing a visitor’s interest is the overriding goal for all web site publishers. They are aware that if they are unable to capture the interest of prospective clients in a span of thirty seconds or less, then most likely, the prospective clients will simply click away on to another website.

In this short span of time, web site designers and publishers have one common goal – get the visitor’s attention. How do they do this effectively?

They use flash modules to give their websites the animation some people are looking for; some opt for bold color combinations or use music for the introduction. Still others prefer the deployment of a squeeze page – either as a landing page or as a pop-up!

During this initial period of contact, customers will make their decision whether your website is worth their time and effort and gauge its user-friendliness as well. These strategies are add-ons to the regular FAQ pages, About Us, etcetera navigation bars or buttons.

Dome website owners swear by the effectivity of using a squeeze page. It is designed in such a way using a screaming headline and bullet points regarding the customer’s problem and how you propose to solve or remedy his situation. Sometimes squeeze pages even offer visitors a free report, eBook or newsletter. The main purpose of having a squeeze page is to be able to get a prospective customer’s name and email address for marketing purposes.

Being able to get the customer’s name and e-mail address legally gives you a verified and legitimate opt-in list – something that almost all website owners would give an arm for! Since spamming has been declared illegal with the surge of e-mail marketing campaigns, website owners are now taking extra care not to be reported to authorities since they will lose their websites once they are found guilty of committing spam.

So when planning to create your website, plan it accordingly and take into consideration the navigation layout, colors to use, user-friendliness, the use of squeeze pages and stunning landing pages. Keep in mind that some people go for less while there are those who prefer the bells and whistles.

A well-designed website uses all of the above judiciously by creating harmony among the various elements in use. Never design a website that would overwhelm your prospective clients – they would see it as a hard sell tactic you would lose more customers this way.

It all depends also on the product or service that you are promoting via your web page so it really is a matter of finding the right balance before you decide to publish what you have designed.

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What is Blogging?

June 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Have you heard of this thing called blogging? If you use the Internet or have spent time on the Internet, you have probably heard of a blog, even if you aren’t sure of what one is. You may have even visited one or read some content on one and not even realized it. The term “blog” is a contraction for web log and this is a web site that is typically maintained by an individual and contains regular entries of some sort.
These entries are typically sorted by date or topic and may be about daily events and activities, commentary or other material such as graphics and video. Some personal blogs take the form of a diary or journal. Blogs can be about any topic the author chooses.

The term “blog” is also used as a verb meaning to blog as in the act of writing entries onto one’s blog. The blogging phenomenon has gained in popularity in recent years and is now used by many types of people for many different purposes.

Some types of blogs are:
• Personal blog
• Corporate blog
• Question blogging
• Media blogs
• Video blog (vlog)
• House blog

A collective community of blogs is referred to as a blogosphere. Since all blogs are found on the Internet, they are often considered to be socially linked and connected in some way even if they are not on the same blogging service.

If you wanted to try your own hand at blogging, it’s fast, easy and free to get started. There are many websites that offer free blogs where anyone can set up an account and start their own blog. These blogs often come with features that allow you to easily customize them without having to know any HTML. They have WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors and custom themes to get you started with ease.

These blogging sites make it possible for people with little to no experience to set up their own blog and get started in just a few minutes. By the year 2004, blogging was considered mainstream and now you can find bloggers from all countries, ages, sex and ethnicity.
People use blogs as their own personal journals, as a way to keep in contact with friends and family, to discus political events, to advertise a company or business or to discuss and review their favorite movies. There are as many reasons to blog as there are people who blog and the numbers are growing everyday. With a blog, anyone can have their own little piece of the Internet to do whatever they want with.

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How to Start a Blog

June 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Have you ever wanted to start your own blog? If you’ve heard about blogging but not started it yourself, you may be wondering how to start a blog. The good news is that it’s really easy and in most cases, it’s also free. But first, let’s discuss what a blog is for those of you who may not know.

A blog is a personal or business space where you can add posts or entries as often as you want and as much as you want on basically any topic that you want. This is an opportunity to say whatever you want. The entries are listed in latest chronological order and there is also the feature of reader comments so people can interact with what you have to say.

Now that you have the basic rundown on what the blog is, it’s time to tell you how to start a blog. First you should know that there are many websites out there that offer free spaces for creating your blog. These sites are often referred to as blog software sites and there are now quite a few of them to choose from with the growing popularity of blogging.

Some examples are:
• Wordpress
• Blogger
• Typepad
• Hubpages
• Squidoo (similar to a blog but you create “lenses”)

These are just some of the main free blog software sites out there but it’s certainly not all of them. The most well known are usually the easiest to start with. They have good instructions and step by step walkthroughs of how to set up your account and start your blog. There are also so many people who have used them that you will find many external help links as well.

Once you find the site you want to try first, create your free account and set up a blog. Take some time to try out the different features before going live. Get familiar with the blog software and what it has to offer. You may decide that you want to try a few different blog software sites before deciding on which one you like best.

This will save you hassle of having to switch your URL if you try one blog site and don’t like it and then want to move. Once you create your blog, you have a great deal of creative freedom to do whatever you want. If you are stuck on ideas for your blog, try reading other people’s blogs, blogs on similar topics as yours or articles and tips and on how to write for a blog. All of these should help you become more comfortable with your own new blog. You will be sharing your thoughts over the Internet in no time at all.

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How to Increase Traffic to Your Blog

June 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you have your blog set up now and you’ve started posting, you might be wondering where all the readers are. If you’re posting regularly but your view count just doesn’t seem to be climbing, you need to learn how to increase traffic to your blog. Whether you are blogging for fun and just want people to read what you say or blogging for profit and want to start making money, there are some things you can do to increase your blog traffic.

First you need to understand that just like any other website, you will need to market. It will take some blog promotion to start getting your posts out there and read. It’s also important that you make sure your blog contains something that people want to read. If not, even if you do get visitors, they won’t stay for long or return. Once you know you have quality content that is of value to other people, try these techniques:

Create a bloglet ( HYPERLINK “http://www.bloglet.com” www.bloglet.com ) subscription and invite people in your network to subscribe. You can invite your friends, family, co-workers, online friends, etc.

Use Ping-O-Matic ( HYPERLINK “http://www.pingomatic.com” www.pingomatic.com ) to ping the blog directories with one easy click. You can do this every time you make a new post and you will see the hits rolling in.

Set up a feed on MyYahoo ( HYPERLINK “http://www.my.yahoo.com” www.my.yahoo.com ) and your site will be regularly searched by the Yahoo search engine spiders.

Use photos on your posts. Pictures and visual content draw the reader in.

Read and comment on other people’s blogs, particularly those in your target niche. People will then follow your link back to you.
Submit your blog directly to traditional search engines. Try Submit Fire ( HYPERLINK “http://www.submitfire.com” www.submitfire.com )
Add a link to your blog in your email signature or in forum signatures of forums you use.

Put a link to your blog on every page of your website.
Include a link to your blog in your standard outgoing correspondence.
Link to your blog in newsletters.

Add your blog URL to business cards, sales letters, flyers and more.
Be sure to have an RSS feed URL so people can subscribe to your blog.
Always remember to post often so people keep coming back and so you continue to be refreshed by search engines.
Use TrackBack links when posting to other blogs.
Write articles to submit to article directories and include your blog link in the author’s info box.
Use a hit counter to track your page views, unique views and other information.

These are some sure fire ways to increase traffic to your blog. Remember that if you want your blog to be successful, you will have to commit to it everyday. Even just a small amount of time each day can make a big difference.

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Tips for Blogging Successfully

June 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

If you want to try your hand at blogging, you may want to read these tips for blogging successfully. This will help you learn how to be the best blogger you can be and more people will want to read your blogs. Whether you are writing for fun or profit, you can be sure you’re doing it right.

Some of the same rules that apply to newsletters and ezines will also apply to your blog writing except you have a little more personal freedom and creativity with the blog. You are not as restricted with a blog as you are with article writing or regular web site writing, either. Here are some tips for blogging successfully.

Write something valuable. You want to give your reason something they can actually care about or something that means something to them as well. Make your writing valuable and they will come back for more again and again.

Keep your reader in mind. This tip goes along with the first one a bit. Remember that your readers are going to be asking “what’s in it for me?” You need to answer that question for them.

Make it worthwhile. Never waste people’s time when they come to your blog. If you don’t have anything important to say yourself, and then link to an article, interview someone or review a book or product. Keep it worthwhile.

Use your keywords often. Remember that this will keep traffic coming in to your site so use them correctly but use them often.
Keep it simple. You may have a lot to say and to you it may be important but your readers don’t have a lot of time so you need to keep it simple and straight to the point.

Use numbered lists, bullet points and subheadings to break up the text and make it easier to skim-read.

Always proofread before you hit that send button. Your readers will lose respect when you have a lot of typos and grammatical errors in your posts. If there are too many mistakes, it can also make your posts difficult to read.

Link a lot. Linking is a great way to get your blog out there and to build credibility with your readers. You can establish yourself as an expert in your field by properly linking from your blog.
Avoid the jargon. Before you send your post, look back over what you’ve written and make sure it’s not full of jargon.
Write how you would talk. Remember that in blog posting, it’s ok to be a little more casual and use phrases from your normal speech.
These are all important tips to help you blog more successfully. Remember these tips and you will have more fun blogging and also have better success from your readers.

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