Why Choose A Professional Web Designer

November 20, 2008 at 1:06 am · Filed under Web_Design

It seems that almost every Tom Dick and Harry do web design in one form or another. Everyone seems to know a friends’ brother’s son who can build websites for real cheap. Why choose to pay the sometimes high fees that web designers charge?

There’s a right way to build websites and there’s a wrong way to build them.

There are a number of considerations when building a website. The first is that the website being created is search engine friendly. I’ve seen some websites built in such a way that search engines couldn’t see more than the home page. This results in a fraction of the traffic potential that would otherwise result for the website.

Professional or Mickey Mouse?

A poorly designed website reflects on the business that it is attached to. When your prospects visit a website that is poorly created, they will tend to project that first impression onto the rest of the services that your company has to offer. This can affect everything from how often you close sales to how much you can charge a client. In other words, it hurts your bottom line.

Anyone can create a simple web page. How many people can create a professional image?

What kind of recourse do you have?

If a high school kid is creating your website and something goes wrong or you spend months waiting for it only to find out you wouldn’t want to use it anyway what can you do about it? When you choose a professional web design firm that can provide you with a list of satisfied customers, you can at least look to a track record you can count on.

You get what you pay for

If you pay someone to build a simple website for you that ends up turning customers off, how much has that website really cost you? Getting a professional looking website may be more costly up front but it will pay for itself many times over in the long run.

Communicate a consistent Business Image

By having your website created by a professional and having the content of that website written by a good business writer, you can have a powerful ally towards increase business sales and customer satisfaction. Choosing the right professional website designer can go a long way towards helping you achieve your business goals.

Joe Duchesne is a professional web designer who co-founded his own company called http://www.yowling.com. Yowling offers a web site builder that makes it really easy for anyone to have their own professional website. Reprint freely as long as you maintain the keyword rich links in this resource box.

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Finger Eating Garage Door Reveals Breakthrough Web Design and Linking Strategy

November 19, 2008 at 10:05 am · Filed under Web_Design

Last Thursday afternoon I was working on a garage door and regrettably loosened the torsion spring too much. This spring is what relieves or neutralizes the weight of the garage door so the openers can work without burning out and so you don’t have to be Arnold Schwarzenegger to open it.

I released the door from the opener and it began closing way too quickly. As I rushed over to try and slow it’s decent, I grabbed the handle with my left hand and was trying to grab anything with my right hand. Unfortunately, the only thing that got grabbed was my pinky finger - two knuckles up. The 1000 lb. door came crashing down so hard it broke the glass in one of its sections.

When the dust cleared and the glass had stopped clinking- I looked over to see my finger clamped firmly and squashed flatly between two sections of the heavy wooden door. I had no one around, no other neighbors were home, and I was trapped, in lots of pain, and unable to get free or lift the door (what would you do?). I tried pulling my cell phone out of my pocket but inside the garage there was no signal.

I did the only thing I could - I screamed for help through the broken glass

Now, you may be wondering what in the world this painful story has to do with web design- but read on and I’ll explain…

I yelled for what seemed forever, but in reality was maybe five minutes, yet no one came. Now, for a few minutes I thought to myself - “I have a knife in my pocket- am I going to have to cut my own finger off to get free?” Seeing how flat it was crushed I didn’t really think it had much chance of surviving that trauma anyway

I wasn’t that desperate quite yet and figured I should try calling for help again - and here’s where some recent training with internet marketing came in( “What are you talking about, Bob?” you ask.)

Dan Kennedy always talks about “leading a customer through your site”. Don’t leave anything to chance. They want to be told exactly what to do next.

So as I stood there in gut wrenching pain, totally unable to move or get free, I thought to myself, “maybe people are hearing my cry for help, but don’t know where it’s coming from. It could be just echoing around the neighborhood”

So in a last ditch effort, I started screaming (and I can be quite loud) “HELP! I’m trapped in a garage at 52 Lakeview Ave. and I need help NOW!” Within a minute or two about 5 guys came running down the street from somewhere (I don’t know where) and up the driveway. The specific directions worked! They began trying to pry the door up but it had come off the track and was jammed. So their prying was only clamping the door sections even tighter on my finger. OUCH! So once again, I got specific.

I told 2 guys to stay out side-3 to come around back and come inside. I had 2 go to work on the pulleys on either side and get them back in the track, the other one called 911. After what seemed like ages, the door was back on track and lifted high enough to allow the finger to be finally pulled out from between the sections. Ugh. It was nasty looking, flatter than a pancake…(almost surreal)

Now, how does this relate to Web site design? It’s very clear to me In a matter of life and death (ok-life and death of a finger), nothing happened until I specifically yelled for help with exact directions where to come. I tried for five minutes screaming just for help- that didn’t work. Only when I screamed the address where I was at and what the problem was, did I finally get a good response. Zero before, 5 after. Hey! That’s a 500% increase!

We need to do the same thing with our web design and linking strategies. Specifics- Lead the client or potential client through the process step by step clearly. Use accurate keywords and descriptive text for all your links. Don’t scream out generically, or they will never know where to go next. All they’ll hear is a vacant echo, as they continue doing what they were doing before. And they’ll probably end up someone else’s client because they can’t hone in on where the cry for action is coming from and where they need to go.

Miraculously, after being rushed to the hospital, blood had begun to flow back into the finger and x-rays revealed only a broken knuckle. Because it had been caught sideways, the tendons and nerves were preserved and not cut, aside from some numbness and pain, the finger is well on its way to a full recovery (Phew! Really glad I didn’t cut it off now).

Moral of the story: Design your site and your linking strategies as if your life (or finger) depended on it. Be specific, be specific, and oh yeah, be specific.

Bob

Bob Volk, Founder of VolkNet Enterprises, is an Internet Entrepreneur and has started/co-founded many sites including http://volknet.com, http://seo-elite-services, and his newest venture, an automated link exchange program with a unique twist at http://Link-Blaster.com.
He specializes in Web Site Design, Marketing, and SEO Consultation for both small and medium size businesses doing $30 - $40 million a year.

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Attention Grabbing Web Design Will Kill Your Sale!

November 18, 2008 at 12:03 pm · Filed under Web_Design

In the of-line marketing world it is all about trying to get the attention of the potential consumer to a commercial message.

The primary goal is to get noticed by the public.

It doesn’t matter if it is for radio, TV, magazines, newspapers or posters.

It all comes down to getting noticed.

On the Web this doesn’t work!

The reason for this is that on the web, the net surfer is actively searching and looking for information from this gigantic data repository and database that we call the Internet.

They are scanning and reading text on web sites and they are mostly blind to graphics and pictures.

In the of-line world the potential target is mostly passive and experience ads in a state of relaxation among other stimulations. Here you must scream out your message to market your product or service.

Off-line people are passive!

On the Web people are active!

What does this mean for your web site?

For one thing, when anyone visits your web site, you at that moment already have their full attention. So, there is no need to get visual attention to attract your visitors.

They are on your site, already!

But, you normally have their full attention only until they have decided if your site is what they are looking for or not.

If your site is not what they are looking for or they don’t understand that your site is what they are looking for they quickly leave your site, never to return.

The time between they arrive at your site and decide to stay or leave is very short.

Normally around 10 seconds!

If you use flash or large graphics, which take to long to load, most people leave without figuring out what your site is about. The attention span on the Net is short!

The web surfers don’t look at graphic so much as they are reading the information you present.

When they arrive you need to keep their attention and inform them about what your site is all about and describe its benefits.

You need to keep their attention, but not by an attention grabbing web design!

Instead, use attention grabbing text!

The most important attention grabbing text is the headline!

The headline will break it or make it!

Does this mean that the web design can look sloppy or amateurish?

No!

It just means that the design of a site should not be made with extensive graphics or flash presentation. This will just confuse and take to long time to download.

If you make a clean and easy navigational web site you are much better off!

Yet, what one see on the Internet is to often sites with advanced web design that to often leave you asking what its all about and what its creators are thinking!

If website owners and webmasters concentrated much more of their effort on text information and less on design they would see much better response from their potential customers.

There is no need to hire a web designer and pay them several 1000 of dollars to make a site attractive and to make it commercially viable.

In most cases this is contra-productive.

The web designer often will kill your sale by creating attention grabbing web design.

Instead, put your effort on the text information on your site!

About The Author

Per Strandberg is a software designer and web site maker! He has a web site which offer data backup information at http://www.data-backup-and-storage.com. Visit his site with web traffic generating tips at http://www.catch-traffic.com

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