Online Marketing Chronicle

Owning a small business in this day and age is becoming more difficult.  The fact is that major franchises, chains and large stores are taking over the little guys out there.  Everyday in every small town, people witness the little shops, stores and service providers slipping into the cracks and closing shop.  This is sad, especially with all of the tools and resources available on the internet.  Using the internet is just another method of advertising, a newer tool in the tool box that these small businesses can use to increase their annual revenue and remain open for business.

Not that the internet is a new tool, it’s simply not, but it is new to a lot small business owners out in the country struggling to stay alive.  To many small business owners, computers and the internet are a scary and uncharted territory for them.  These business owners have a false sense of cost and productivity that having a web presence can bring.  Not only is it essential to have a website in today’s changing market, it is essential to develop an ecommerce website that sells all of the products and services a business offers.  Trends are leaning towards people using the internet as their own personal tool at home to look for the perfect car, house, mop, jewelry, anything really.  Sitting at home and browsing is a lot less intrusive than going out in a car to the store, especially with the costs of gas going up, to find exactly what they are looking for. Continue reading »

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the method and enhancement of a web site in such a way to make it search engine friendly, and to increase the number and quality of visitors by utilizing keywords and phrases. If you aspire to have a small business website, you must understand what Search Engine Optimization is before you start designing your website.

Keywords are the words or phrases that an Internet user types in when making a search in a search engine. These terms and phrases are compared against the search engines indexed records. Other characteristics like keyword density, back links and other elements of the algorithms that the main search engines keep confidential are combined into the measurement, and the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is arranged depending on the results of the specifications.

The website developer or content provider must be knowledgeable about the various types of search engines determined by the sort of data desired. There are three fundamental sorts of search engines: spiders, programs that index data depending on what the spider discovers, as the web pages are "crawled", human input indexing, and a mixture of the two.

There are also all-purpose search engines that search blogs, forums and websites for particular content and subject matter (Google, Facebook, Ask.Com, Yahoo, etc.), in addition, there are engines that search maps and merchandise prices (MapQuest, PriceGrabber, etc). Modifying the site based on the distinct search engine technology as a rule will return superior ranking results. This is what SEO is.

SEO ought not to be the only tool utilized to push visitors to the website. Although Search Engine Optimization is essentially no cost, banners, back linking, and Pay Per Click methods could produce superior results since they guide a more targeted client to your website.

Since you can now define the term Search Engine Optimization, you can start creating a valuable website for your business.

You can design your own website using the easiest website builder on the planet. Weblolo.com offers a website builder that helps you to achieve professional looking results even if you have no computer programming, html, or graphic design knowledge. Try out the absolutely FREE trial today – no credit card necessary!

If you want your website to rank well in the search engines, there are certain features that should not be overlooked.  Here are five of the most important aspects:

1. Create your site with a clear and logical hierarchy, and good internal linking structure
2. Build a useful, information rich site, and make sure the content on each page agrees with its place in the structure.  Content should also be useful for your users.
3. Make sure that each page has a unique <title> tag, and it accurately describes the content on the page, and that all images have ALT tags that are descriptive
4. Frequently check for broken links and correct HTML – anything that is broken can hinder the spiders as they try to index your site
5. Use a robots.txt file on your web server which tells the crawlers which directories can or can't be crawled.

Huge Mistake #1: Creating a Website with Flash — Did you know in a recent study, top internet marketers discovered that having a website created with Flash, actually decreased the response from prospects and customers by as much as 370 percent?

Here's why: Your prospects and customers are most likely visiting your website using all types of different computers, connection speeds and internet configuration settings…

What may look great to one visitor may not even appear for another! You could very easily have shelled out hundreds or even thousands of dollars to have a website created using the Flash technology, only to find out that some of your visitors will never see it! (Not to mention the loading times can cause your visitor to close your site, never to return again.)

Huge Mistake #2: The "Internet Catalog" Approach — You see this everywhere. Good, honest and hardworking businessmen and women get online to sell their products or services, and have a site created for them that contains a link to just about everything they offer on one page. Their thinking goes along the lines of, "…well, I don't want to leave anyone out. If they come to my site, I want to make sure I have what they're looking for…" — This way of thinking could not be further from the truth.

Here's why: There's an ancient rule that goes back to the very beginning of direct-marketing on the internet, taught by the richest, most legendary and well-respected internet marketers of all time…

"When you give your prospects too many choices, they become confused and aren't sure what to do next. Confused people never buy anything."

Huge Mistake #3: Optimizing Your Sales Site for the Search Engines — You'll see this taught in nearly every "internet marketing" course, manual or eBook out there… "You must optimize every page of your website for the search engines!" — In fact, this false teaching is accepted as 'gospel truth' so often that most web designers will offer to do this for you at no, or little extra cost…

What they don't understand is that certain words and phrases must be either re-worded (to make it "keyword rich") or taken out completely, just to be looked upon highly by the mighty search engines — and this could kill your sales, literally overnight.

Here's why: When you or a hired web designer optimize your sales page (i.e. any web page designed to sell your products and services) to get a higher listing in the search engines, you're going to have to sacrifice the pulling-power of your sales copy (i.e. written sales material) just to get those higher listings. Sure, this can bring you more traffic — but what good is all the traffic in the world, if your visitors arrive at your website and aren't compelled enough to read why they should order your product?

For years, it has been taught that you should always try to find a "balance" of SEO (Search-Engine-Optimization) mixed with promotional copy designed to sell your products and services…

Wrong Again! — The truth is that you should never optimize your sales page for the Search Engines. Instead, you should create tiny "entry pages" for each keyword related to your product or service, (highly optimized for the Search Engines) and have them link to your main sales site! (We can show you exactly how to do this quickly and easily and get *massive* targeted traffic from the Search Engines – without ever *touching* your sales site!)

Huge Mistake #4: Having a "Graphics-Based" Website — Sure, graphics can certainly help us to visualize a particular situation or circumstance, product or service… But did you know that having a graphically-driven website can actually distract your visitor away from your sales message?

After all, your sales message (or "web copy") is The #-1 most important factor in a website that makes money. If your visitors are paying more attention to your "professional graphics" than your sales message… you've just lost another sale.

Here's why: You've got approximately seven seconds from the time your visitor arrives at your site, to the time they decide whether to buy your product, get more information or leave. If you've got a graphically-intensive website, your website will most likely still be loading past your seven-second time limit.

That's a "customer-killer" in and of itself – however, the real reason lies within the fact that the bigger, brighter and more beautiful your graphics are, the more they will distract your visitor from your sales message. And if your visitor is distracted even for one second, it could mean the difference between getting a sale, and losing a customer.

Huge Mistake #5: Designing a Website with Zero Marketing Experience — Most web designers have no idea how to make money on the internet, with anything other than their design services. It's not their fault – they simply have no or very little marketing and sales experience. After all, they're just website designers…

However, having your website designed by someone with Zero internet marketing experience is like buying a street-car without an engine… it won't go anywhere, and it'll just waste your time and money! 

For help on website design, or to build your own site, please visit www.weblolo.com

There are thousands of photography websites on the Internet. Most are professional, slick, and eye-catching. How can you create a website to compete with other sites? The answer is simple: use one of the many photography website builder packages available.

What are the earmarks of a good software package for this purpose? It must include the ability to use flash components, have FTP protocol, and ideally, iPhone optimized access.  The latter is important because, let’s face it, our cell phones have become our cameras, photo albums, and camcorders all in one. There are photography website builder packages that are relatively inexpensive and will help you create a website with that elusive “wow” factor.

Photography websites have needs that set them apart from the average small business website. They are by definition graphics heavy and the software used to design the site must be able to handle adding large images to the website. Before you purchase a photography website builder, ask yourself a few questions. How many photographs and of what dimension, can I upload with this program? How many pages can I add to my site? Is it easy to change the templates used to design the site?  Does the software offer tech support?

There’s no longer any need for most small businesses to hire a web designer. The current software packages make it easy and affordable to create a website.  A photography website builder is no different; one does not need to have coding skills or know html in order to create a website.

It is definitely worth the money to invest in a photography website builder. With a few hours of effort, you can display your images to the world. The software won’t put your images into focus, but it will focus attention on your site.

Not so long ago, anyone who wanted a professional looking website had to fork over a good deal of money to a web designer.  That’s no longer the case.   There are many online solutions that offer website builder templates to help people without any specialized computer knowledge build websites that look great and have visitors returning again and again.

Consider several factors before deciding to choose a web designer or venturing forth on your own using website builder templates. Look at the budget allocated to building the website. There are website builder templates offered free of charge, but rarely does a web designer waive his fee. Free website builder templates have a limited scope, so plan to spend a little money opening up a range of software choices.

Will your site include graphics or interactive aspects like a shopping cart and check out? A good software package enables the user to build these into the website easily and in short order. Time is another factor to consider. Many websites can be built within a matter of hours using the appropriate software.

How large will the completed website be–that is, how many pages of content does it need? The bigger and more complicated the website, the more likely that a web designer will be needed to do the work.  Web designers have a great deal to offer in this area, but most small businesses don’t have websites complicated enough to justify their use. A website builder template offers just enough range of choices and ease of use to satisfy the needs of a small to medium size business.

Using an easy website builder that offers nice templates can be a source of satisfaction for a small business owner. After all, they’ve built their business from the ground up and constructing an eye-catching, professional looking website is just part of that process.

People usually begin an online business in one of three ways: they build an online site to their current brick and mortar business that may already be thriving, the online business is a hobby that is just a side income, or the online business is the source of the individual’s livelihood. It doesn’t matter which of these scenarios fit your business, an Ecommerce website builder can put the business on the road to success.

An Ecommerce website builder first and foremost constructs an attractive, easy to use site that you will be proud to call your own. Updates to the site should be simple and quick.  This is essential because inventory can change daily or seasonally depending on the type of company you’re undertaking.  The website should be visually appealing as well.

An online newsletter can be an important element in an Ecommerce business. These newsletters advise customers about upcoming sales, new items for sale, and/or include small articles about the current stock. For example, an online grocer might add an article about beets to his newsletter, explaining the different varieties and nutritional values of this vegetable. An Ecommerce website builder should contain this feature.

Another vital feature to an Ecommerce website builder is the check out cart. It should be user friendly – people become impatient if this feature doesn’t work properly and will seldom give the site a second chance. A failure at the shopping cart level can decrease profit in a hurry. Payment gateways, a feature coupled with the shopping cart is also important. The visual cues corresponding to payment types should be distinct and easy to find.

Online business owners have many tools available that will help their business succeed. It is important to understand and use these tools properly of course. The basis for success will begin with the Ecommerce website builder that you choose.

People who have brick and mortar businesses who wish to add a website into their advertising budget often mistakenly believe that a great website must be created by a professional web designer.  Even some of the most well informed World Wide Web users who may have a site online share in this misconception. There are some great software packages that allow a DIY (do it yourself) approach to website building. Is a DIY website builder the right choice for you?

Many people labor under the illusion that they must know HTML, XTML, or CSS in order to design a user-friendly website that will interest web browsers. That couldn’t be further from the truth. DIY website builders such as Weblolo.com are well suited for beginners. And at as little as $5.95 per month, it is also very affordable.

This type of DIY website builder allows users to add your own logos, images, music, and even flash animations to your site with just a click of the mouse. Weblolo offers thousands of  attractive templates to make web design easy. The customer has a wide range of options with DIY web design software. They can easily resize images. In addition, Weblolo.com also allows users to preview the website while it is under construction.

Websites themes can change with the season or holiday with this type of site builder. The content on the site won’t be affected. This is another advantage of using a DIY website builder – it keeps a site looking fresh and current with just a few clicks of the mouse. Business owners who offer specials during peak holiday seasons find this very convenient.

A good DIY website builder makes life easier for a business owner. It doesn’t matter if the business is strictly online or a combination of brick and mortar store and web store – creating your own website is easy and within even a modest advertising budget.