Web Design - Some Quick Tips To Get Started

Web design can be quite a daunting prospect if you are new to the Internet. You would like to create your own site but have no idea where to start. Html? Photoshop? Fireworks? FrontPage? Dreamweaver?

This article/tutorial will give you some tips and hints on how to get started with web design - and which shortcuts to take!

~ Tip 1: Learn HTML ~
I can hear you groan. I said I was going to give you some shortcuts, now I suggest you learn HTML! Unfortunately there is no way around it. Even if you make use to the shortcuts to web design that I am going to suggest, learning HTML will still be the best investment that you can make. It is really not that difficult and it will greatly aid in your understanding of web design.

A really good place for online tutorials on HTML can be found here: http://www.w3schools.com/html/

Depending on your enthusiasm and level of technical skill I would also suggest that you learn a bit about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Cascading style sheets can assist you tremendously with controlling the layout, colors and images on your web page. You can also find good CSS tutorials on the w3schools website.

~ Tip 2: Use a web template for web design ~
Now this is really a shortcut to web design! I suggest that you create your first website by making use of a web template. There are lots of commercial templates available, and frankly, they are beautiful, but I am going to give you some hints on where to find free web templates. Most people would think that searching for 'free web templates' in Google would be the most obvious way of doing it - but I suggest that you rather search for 'open source web templates'.

Here are three sources with open source (basically - free to use) web templates. The advantage of these templates is that they are normally well designed and will also teach you good web design principles (as opposed to most of the commercial templates which, while they are undeniably beautiful to look at, they are normally not built making use of good web design principles).

My favorite Open Source web design site is http://www.oswd.org
This site has over a 1600 free designs to choose from. Download any design and build your site! Most of these designs make use of CSS as well which is why it is a good idea to learn CSS.

Another site with lots of free template designs is http://www.daydreamgraphics.com
I suggest that if you are just starting out you stick with the designs made with tables. These are the easiest to manipulate and use. The templates on Daydreamgraphics are not for everyone - they are mostly geared towards a young funky look, so if you are looking for a design that you can use for your business or company, you might do better to rather select a design from OSWD, but if you are looking at setting up a personal website, a hobby site or a site related to music or entertainment, these designs will work very well.

~ Tip 3: Use Wordpress or Joomla to create your site ~
This option is really by far the best way to create your website in the long term. Theoretically you do not need to know HTML and CSS to create and modify your site but in practice it pays off to learn these skills since it will help you master these tools just so much faster.

The steps to creating your website using these tools are as follows:

1. Log into your CPanel control panel (if you are not using a host that provides you with a CPanel control panel and Fantastico scripts - frankly, my only advice is to change to one that does!)

2. Select Fantastico from the control panel

3. Select either Wordpress or Joomla from the menu on the left.

4. Install Wordpress or Joomla in the root folder. You will have to select an administrator username and password to access the admin side of your site.

Log into the admin backend (normally /wp-admin for Wordpress and /administrator for Joomla). There are lots of free Wordpress tutorials available - just do a Google search for 'free Wordpress tutorials' and to get started in Joomla, do a search for 'how to use Joomla'.

To change the look and feel of your Wordpress or Joomla website is really easy! You simply install a new template. Wordpress and Joomla templates are specific to these tools (you cannot use any templates). For a guide to where to find the best free Wordpress and Joomla templates you can take a look at these resources:

http://www.tm4y.co.za/joomla-tips/best-joomla-templates.html

and

http://www.tm4y.co.za/wordpress-tips/wordpress-templates.html

I hope that these tips will help you on your way to creating your own website - web design the easy way!

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About the Author: Christine Anderssen is the owner of Tailormade4you Web Design and Internet Web Hosting for South Africa. After spending 20 years in the corporate IT world she recently started her own Web Design and Development company specializing in custom built Internet solutions for small businesses. Visit her website for free tutorials and tips on how to use Joomla and Wordpress for Web Design.

eCommerce Fundamentals

eCommerce can be VERY complex. To offer a world class customer experience, retailers must incorporate technologies and functionality that exceeds rising customer expectations.

On the flip side however, site fundamentals still play a very large role in converting visitors into customers. Many retailers surprisingly lose sight of these site basics and leave significant sales on the table. This brief examines 4 quick “fundamentals” every eCommerce manager cannot afford to lose sight of.

Think Fast

Speed has become less of a problem due to the penetration of broadband, but don’t forget that a significant number of people still shop by a dialup connection. When creating a site framework, designers and e-commerce teams should ensure that the site is developed with pages loading in less than 9 seconds (over a dial-up connection).

Our recommended page size is within 60-70k in bytes. At that amount, sites will likely load within the maximum wait time of 9 seconds. Online retailers should avoid flash at all costs within their transactional site. Flash’s artistic aspects may help you establish a brand presence – but it will likely lose potential customers before they have even searched within your store.

Image is important

Images are a very important aspect of selling online and are often neglected. All product images should be of the highest resolution possible, be much larger than the product page original, and have

multiple views. Dynamic imaging capabilities can improve the user experience to an even higher level by increasing interactivity (zoom & rotate). At a minimum – retailers should have at least two additional views outside of the product page image to help build emotion.

Be my guest

Shoppers do not like being forced to do anything, especially when they are ready to open their wallets. Forcing a shopper to register on your site before purchasing is a sure way to drive a portion of your traffic to your competitors. Too often, shoppers do not have the time or the inclination to fill out a lengthy form explaining what types of information they desire.

Always offer the ability to checkout as a guest. You will see less customer leakage within the checkout process and can still offer the option to register when the sale is completed.

Make sure it’s “above the fold”

Your homepage is the most important page within your eCommerce store. It sets the initial tone for the shopping experience and offers your best promotions and products to your visitors. Users typically visually scan a web page from top to bottom and then from left to right. All critical content and navigation options should be obvious to the shopper without having to scroll down. If you have your best promotions “below the fold” – you can bet that a large percentage of browsers are not scrolling down to see it.

Craig Smith

Trinity Insight LLC

http://www.trinityinsight.com

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About the Author: Craig Smith is the founder of Trinity Insight LLC - a leading consulting firm for the eCommerce sector

Your E-Commerce Website and Search Engine Optimization

E-Commerce has been around only since the early 1990s, when Amazon.com and eBay.com became two of the first companies to sell products on the Internet. But E-Commerce is already revolutionizing the way goods are bought and sold around the world.

Buyers love E-Commerce because they can “shop till they drop” while lounging at home in their pajamas or riding the subway during rush hour. Sellers love it because they can offer their wares to people around the world without expensive marketing campaigns.

But successful internet marketing has become more and more challenging, especially for new businesses. With the proliferation of websites offering similar products, buyers have become overloaded with information. Typing one simple item in a search engine can return thousands of entries spanning multiple screens. A small entrepreneur can invest a huge amount of money to create a fantastic website, but the website won’t attract customers if it appears far down the list produced by a search engine. Competition has become fierce among vendors to ensure that their company is listed at the top of the list, on the first screen that the searcher sees.

One way to accomplish this is with a Paid Listing. These are advertisements, similar to paid ads in a magazine or newspaper. Whenever a potential buyer searches on a particular word or phrase, these ads will usually appear on the right side or very top of the page under the “sponsored links” heading.

The other way to get your company listed near the top of the search list is to employ a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialist. Search Engine Optimization basically means getting qualified customers to visit your website by insuring that your website is ranked high on the list when a potential buyer searches on a particular word or phrase related to your product. A good SEO will also be able to easily tie their software to your existing software, including your financial packages and shopping cart software, in order to help you track sales and produce return sales.

SEOs use a variety of techniques to get your business and to drive customers to your website. Unfortunately, they aren’t all ethical. Google and other search engines are able to spot unethical techniques, and will remove your website from their index if it employs such techniques. You can find advice on Google’s website for choosing a reputable SEO firm. Google’s first admonition is to be wary of SEO firms that send you emails out of the blue (spam) soliciting your business. Google also recommends that you have a contract in writing that includes pricing. The contract should also require the SEO to stay within the guidelines recommended by each search engine to include your site in its search results.

Achieving a high search engine ranking has become so important in the world of E-Commerce that experts now recommend including search engine optimization techniques in the design of any new website.

Marketing a New or Small Business on a Budget

There are almost as many opinions and views on marketing as there are companies to market. The big names and multinationals will have an extraordinary amount of funding set aside in which to convey their marketing message to the masses.

The process will involve an inordinate amount of people, multiple marketing agencies, countless ‘creativity’ meetings and thousands of work-hours. From television adverts to full pages in the newspapers and glossy magazines, brand names and logos jump out at us and are instantly recognisable - such is the power of advertising on an extremely large budget.

Easily missed then in this marketing free-for-all are the smaller or new businesses. After the usually costly process of setting up a business with its requisite equipment, possibly an office or other type of premises, there is usually little or no funds available for marketing or advertising.

From the first trading day of a new business enterprise, the going is tough. It is small wonder therefore that most new businesses do little or nothing about marketing because of what they see as prohibitive costs.
There are instances of course where new businesses have originated from someone’s hobby or part-time occupation; in these cases the market is usually already there and forming a company was the next logical step, immediate marketing was obviously not required to generate the first customer.

There are many advertising agencies that say there is no need for small businesses to spend a fortune on marketing. This is totally true, but what money a small business does have to advertise should be spent wisely and not just thrown at an agency that might end up failing to deliver. There are far cheaper and more effective ways to get a business on the map.

A website is essential to any business these days and will certainly be an asset. However, your site will be one amongst many millions of others and will not be of immediate use due to the nature of search engines and the way the Internet works in general; therefore you will need to look to other methods.

One of the most important things to bear in mind is not to run before you can walk.
Start small, start local. Unless you already have contracts from further afield, there is no point in casting nationwide for business when a vast amount is already likely to be on your doorstep.

Depending on what type of business you run, leaflets and flyers to other businesses or homes are a good way to get yourself known.

Always carry a business card with you they are invaluable, you never know when you are going to meet someone who wants printed contact details – hey presto! - Instant advertising.

If you have access to a computer, join an online business forum. These are an excellent source of information help and advice from people in the same situation as you. Even those in the same line of business as yourself will usually be happy to offer their help – don’t be afraid to take it, you can always return the favour.

Contact your local Chamber of Commerce for practical sound advice on any aspect of business. They are there to help and are extremely knowledgeable and friendly people.

Business breakfast clubs are normally held once a week in most towns and cities and are another rich source of information and a great place to make contacts, again, don’t forget to take your business cards with you.

The methods I have mentioned are by no means the only ways to market on a budget and have no doubt been written about before, and although they take lots of effort and are very time-consuming, they do produce results.

New and small business owners can often be the most innovative and creative marketers there are. They don’t have the huge budgets of the corporate giants; they don’t have large teams of creative designers, advertising executives, brainstorming committees, PR agencies or even a tea person! However, enterprising cash-strapped individuals are constantly striving to invent novel and cheaper methods of marketing their businesses, often with varying degrees of success. What must be reiterated though is that marketing and advertising need not cost a fortune, but can still be very effective depending on how you approach it.

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About the Author: John Sheridan is a professional proofreader of hard copy items and website copy. He also writes web copy and occasionally accepts small copy-editing assignments. He can be contacted at: john@textcorrect.co.uk website: www.textcorrect.co.uk
This article is the property of the author and may only be reproduced in its original form.

UK Sales and marketing terminology

Terminology / Acronyms
ABC figures: This is the independently audited sales figure for all recognised publications in the UK. By using the ABC figure, you can quickly establish how much the advertising will cost per 1,000 readers.
Account Managers: These are sales people who have great skills in getting repeat orders and maximising revenue returns from existing accounts. It is very rare that a good “Account Manager” will be good at winning new clients.
Blue Bird: This is an unexpected sales opportunity that has a high chance of turning into profitable business.
BRAD: This book lists every UK publication including magazines, newspapers, vertical publications etc. It also contains key information i.e. “ABC figures”, advertising deadlines etc and is one of the most useful tools available if you are looking to place advertising or embark on DIY PR.
Comfort Factor Statements: Also known as credibility statements they show that you can deliver exactly what you say you can. They must not be emotive i.e. include words like “the best”, “fantastic”, “amazing”, “superior” or contain anything that cannot be proven i.e. “high level of customer satisfaction”, “unparalleled support”, unless supported by facts.
Commission Plans: This is how a salesperson is paid for their efforts. It is strongly advised that you include a minimum contribution and ensure that if you plotted a graph of gross margin and percentage of target it would create an incremental curve.
CRM: “Customer Relationship Management” This is software that organises all your sales contacts, schedules activities and is used in targeted marketing campaigns. This is vital to all sales operations and there are many packages to choose from costing anything from £80.00 per user upwards i.e. ACT! Goldmine etc. Previously known as TCM.
Double Bubble: Sales slang for two people being paid out the full amount of commission on a specific deal / incentive or the same person being awarded double the amount of commission.
Elevator Pitch: This term comes from the theory that if you are in a lift on the 10 th floor of a building you should be able to explain what you do before it gets to the ground floor i.e. about 10 seconds. This is often the opening statement of any form of communication and is predominantly used in lead generation and marketing activities.
Farmers: These are sales people who have great skills in getting repeat orders and maximising revenue streams from existing accounts. It is very rare that a good “Farmer” will be good at winning new clients.
Gross Margin: The difference between your buy price and your sell price.
Hunters: These are sales people who are very good at winning new accounts and getting the first order but tend to lose interest when they know that the new customer will continue to buy, this often makes them very bad farmers. Also known as New Business Sales Exec’s.
Kick Back: This is when a company gets an extra soft margin when they buy sufficient numbers / value of a product. i.e. if you buy 10 cars we will give you / or the company free servicing.
Minimum Contribution: This is the account value that all sales staff are required to reach, in gross margin terms, before any commission. This is put in place to ensure that commission is not paid before staff have covered their basic salary plus all other costs i.e. NI, travel, phone, expenses etc.
New Business Sales Exec’s: These are sales people who are very good at winning new accounts and getting the first order but tend to lose interest when they know that the new customer will continue to buy, this often makes them very bad farmers. Also known as “Hunters”.
OTE: “On Target Earnings” This is how much the sales person will earn if they hit their sales target. Please note that when the person has achieved 50% of target they should not earn more than 30% of their OTE. By using this method it creates a further incentive for the salesperson to hit the their sales target.
Over Ride: This is the term used when a sales person over achieves his target and hence is given a large bonus. Remember the bigger the “over rider”, the bigger the incentive and hence this increases the motivation to over achieve the gross margin sales target.
PPC: “Pay Per Click” This is a much-targeted method of advertising and enables sponsored links to be placed at the top of search engine results when your particular key words or phrases are encountered. For each sponsored link placed you are charged from as little as 10 pence upwards.
Prospect: A company / person that you know will require your services and they are looking to purchase. Particularly if you have been asked to bid for the work
RTR: “Ready to Run” This is the term used mainly by advertising agencies or company’s for an advert which is ready to be placed. It is then common practice to place the advert on the deadline in order to get the lowest possible price.
Sales Forecast: The system that sales people and managers use to look at how much business is likely to be won each month, unfortunately these are often misleading due to sales processes that minimise inaccuracies not being implemented.
Sand Bagging: This is a tactic used by sales people who hold back orders so that as many as possible fall in the same month or quarter and hence they over achieve the target to win a large Over Rider. This is not only expensive because extra commission is paid but can also have very negative effects on cash flow. By having a properly implemented Sales Forecast it is very easy to establish if this is occurring.
SEO: “Search Engine Optimisation” This is the method of making sure that your website gets lots of traffic and enables your company to be listed higher in the search engines for specific key words and phrases i.e. car hire Newcastle, buy discount fishing rods, mortgage advice etc. The downside of this methodology is that it takes several months for your website to get a good position on the major search engines i.e. Google, Yahoo etc.
Soft Margin: This is most commonly found in the reseller market and generally provided by the manufacturer in form of marketing assistance i.e. for every £10,000 of product x sold we will provide you with y amount of money that must be spent on promoting our product / service.
Suspect: A company / person that you know will require your services but nothing else is known.
TCM: “Time Contact Management” This is software that organises all your sales contacts, schedules activities and is used in targeted marketing campaigns. This is vital to all sales operations and there are many packages to choose from costing anything from £80.00 per user upwards i.e. ACT, Goldmine etc. Now known as CRM.
TMUP: “Target Market User Profile” this is the type of company / person that would be a prime target for your business i.e. single male 30 – 40 and divorced or SME services based companies with staff of between 3-10 people based within 5 miles of central London etc. Finding and Targeting your prime TMUP will reduce the cost of sales and increase marketing and new business efficiency’s.
Tyre Kicker: This is a company / person who pretends to be interested in your product / service. This term comes from the motor trade when customers would kick the tyres to fain interest when they had no intention of buying a car and were just browsing / looking for a test drive. Sales people who are not performing and wish to give the impression that their sales pipeline is strong often put this type of prospect on their sales forecast.
USP’s: Unique Selling Points i.e. what makes your company different from its competitors. This is used predominantly in lead generation and marketing activities and therefore is a MUST HAVE for any sales strategy to work.
For further information please visit www.bizal.com

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About the Author: Paul Scott works for BIZAL Ltd (www.bizal.com) who provide sales development services for the UK market from sales strategy to lead generation.

How to Avoid Home business SCAM

Here are a few of the most common business scams to make money from home you should avoid:

The Classic “Envelope Stuffing” Scam

Perhaps the most infamous of all home based business scams, this one requires you to send a small fee to a company who will send you a specific number of envelopes to stuff. You are promised to be paid a fee for every envelope that you stuff, but more often than not, the money never comes, and instead of earning, you’ve actually lost money because of the fee you initially paid the company.

The “Call 1-900-“ Scam

Advertisements for this scam will tell you to call a 1-900 number in order to obtain more information on a home business to make money from home offer or a work-at-home job. But 1-900 numbers, unlike 1-800 ones, are not toll fee and require a fee, so you end up losing money by just making the call. And the information they promised? Often such information is next to trivial, and totally useless.

The Scam that Turns You into a Scammer

With this one, you’ll usually receive an email promising you lots of earnings by just using your computer at home to send out some emails. All you have to do is send them a small fee to receive some instructions.

What you get for the fee you paid them are instructions on how you can send the same email you received to other addresses. And the payback you get? Non-existent.

Some Tips on How You Can Avoid Home Based Business Scams

1. If it seems too good to be true, chances are, it probably is. If a home business to make money from home idea or work-at-home-job offers you huge amounts of money for doing next to nothing, chances are, what you’ll actually get in return is next to nothing – or worse, you would’ve lost money as well.

2. Never pay a company for the chance to work. Remember, you’re looking for a job home based business because you want to be paid, not the other way around.

3. If it’s spam, it’s most likely a scam. There’s only one thing to do with spam, and that’s hit delete.

A home based business to make money from home can be a very lucrative and fulfilling venture, but make sure that you’re starting one that’s legitimate and with actual worth. Otherwise, you’ll realize that you’ve left your job only to be taken advantage of.

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About the Author: Make Money From Home
See how you can work from home to make money online with a setup home based business .

OsCommerce - Open Source Ecommerce Solution

The world has been swept off by a storm named OsCommerce. Almost everyone wants to get online and start benefiting from online business. Do you want an e-commerce system but afraid of the higher expenses of building a virtual storefront? Well, if you have been thinking about moving your brick and mortar business to click and mortar business, or about starting a new business that sells online, but have been adjourned by numerous reasons like expense, technical aspects and store management, there is an alternative: OsCommerce Solution.

OsCommerce is different than normal shopping cart systems available in the market. This is an integration of stand alone catalog and shopping cart system which comes ready straight out of the box with a wide range of features. Features like Customer login and shopping history, order status, shipping information, multiple shipping addresses, product rating and reviews, best sellers, payment processing, tax calculation are to name a few. In short, it is a complete solution for your virtual store front.

It is very important to develop a Custom osCommerce Application which is customer friendly, represents your business and your store in the best possible manner which generates profit. Customers should feel more comfortable about your product, or they will not buy it. It is a good strategy to give something for free as sample to try out. Our experienced developers can develop custom osCommerce Applications with additional features according to your requirement.

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About the Author: http://www.indianic.com/oscommerce.html