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Hub You - How To Boost Your Chances at Having a Successful Web Site
Successful business owners understand that the numbers that drive their business are crucial to maintaining control of cash flow. If you do not understand them, ask your accountant for help. Too often, business owners enter records into a computerized accounting program during the year but don’t review them until they receive their annual tax return. Every quarter, or better yet, monthly, print out your Profit & Loss statement and your Balance Sheet. Ask yourself these 10 questions. The answers will help you analyze the performance of your business.1. How Profitable is your Company? Look at your Balance Sheet and find the Retained Earnings number. This cumulative figure records all the income and losses incurred since the business was started. It is adjusted annually.2. What is your Gross Profit in $$’s and in percentage? Watch this number closely. Even small variations month to month make the difference in profit or loss for the month.3. Do you understand Gross Profit and Mark-up are not the same? If you mark your services or goods up 50% your gross profit will only be 33 1/3%. Don’t count dollars of profit that are not there.4. Do you have Inventory? Comparing your gross profit month to month will alert you to unusual variances in your net Inventory.5. What are your Net Expenses? Are they consistent month to month? By recording your expenses on a spreadsheet you will be able to spot variations that lead to problems.6. What areas need improvement? Reviewing numbers monthly permits you t
For more information about Roy H. Williams and his advertising philosophies, visit: http://www.newsbios.com/wizard_of_ads.htm
So, with Roy’s predictions in mind, let’s look at some ways to make our Web sites stronger, more visible, and have a better chance at being succes
Getting a Web site designed professionally can be expensive. If you want to create a basic presence on the Web without any bells and whistles, free Web page design can be a cost saving option. Free Web page design is the facility provided by many Web hosting providers and other sites that allow their customers to download and use free Web design templates to create a Web page or a Web site.Some sites provide standard designs and all a customer has to do is to enter the text content and upload images. An example of such a site is GeoCities.com. Some sites also offer free tutorials that teach the various steps involved in the design process.Web sites like APlusTemplates.com, TemplateMonster.com, Jimworld.com and CabanovaXL site builder offer free Webpage templates, which can be downloaded and used. Homestead.com is a Web site that allows the user to choose from a gallery of Web templates and other features to design the entire Web site. It allows the user to choose a template, guides them in pasting the contents and including images in the design. This makes it possible for even a novice to create a Web page with very little effort.Creating a free Web site has its own disadvantages. Free Web sites are provided limited Web hosting space, may have pop-up advertisements or banner advertisements on the Web pages, long Web addresses and poor help options. Another risk is the termination of services by a free Web site hosting provider. Since you do not pay them anything they are under no obligation to continue the services and m
Wrong.
The one thing that is important to know, however, is that you do have to work to make money online. Just like having a regular offline business, the online business needs to be taken care of, the Web site continually updated, and the customers made to feel safe and secure when doing business with you.
So, let’s devote this article to simple things you can do to have a successful online business. Remember that books have been written on this subject, so this article won’t be all inclusive by any means.
But, for the average Web site owner, it will give you simple steps to take to turn your online business down the right path toward achieving success.
Future of the Internet --
In January of 2003, Roy H. Williams, who is widely known and respected as the “Wizard of Ads,” finally declared, "Now is the time to get in." For years, Roy has been watching and predicting the Internet's future. Back in 1996, he declared, "The Internet is a baby born premature." He even predicted the great dot com crash that we’re still recovering from.
So what does Roy have to say about the future of the Internet? Roy says that the buying public has finally figured out how to use the Internet and what it's good for: specifically, "information gathering and features-based comparison-shopping."
What does Roy suggest for Web sites today?
1. Ignore heavy graphic sites and focus on providing information for your visitors.
2. Build confidence by interacting with your Web visitors and anticipating and answering their questions.
3. Don’t think “advertising” – think information delivery.
4. Focus on Web site architecture (a simply designed site) and exceptional writing.
5. Help your visitors find what they’re looking for within a few minutes of landing on your site. If you make them hunt for information, they’re gone.
For more information such as what was mentioned above, subscribe to Michael Campbell’s newsletter. Michael is one of the most well-known Internet marketers, and his newsletter is exceptional. http://www.internetmarketingsecrets.com
For more information about Roy H. Williams and his advertising philosophies, visit: http://www.newsbios.com/wizard_of_ads.htm
So, with Roy’s predictions in mind, let’s look at some ways to make our Web sites stronger, more visible, and have a better chance at being succes
Education web sites need to be built with a slightly different focus than the general company web site. The below mentioned outline provides some relevant issues which need to be addressed in an educational web site:Very simple graphics. Since educational web sites are not built to WOW an audience but built mostly to deliver some value to students, the graphics are kept very simple.Graphics are used in dynamic web sites which carry course material to explain certain points of the learning content. So if you are designing a web site for the student community, it is necessary to keep in mind that you should not have any graphics which do not carry any educational value.Another reason for keeping simple graphics is that it allows learners to focus on the content on the web site and not get distracted with graphics which are there just to beautify the web site. It is advisable to use icons instead of graphics on educational web sites since they are easy to understand.Keep the user in mind. The first question you need to ask when designing an education web site is who is it targeted to and what is the first thing they will look for when they come to this web site? Once you have your answer, put the most searchable item on the web site in a prominent location which is obvious to the user.Users of educational web sites with dynamic content can be in various age groups and most of them may not be avid internet users. This must be kept in mind when designing the layout, the navigation s
But, for the average Web site owner, it will give you simple steps to take to turn your online business down the right path toward achieving success.
Future of the Internet --
In January of 2003, Roy H. Williams, who is widely known and respected as the “Wizard of Ads,” finally declared, "Now is the time to get in." For years, Roy has been watching and predicting the Internet's future. Back in 1996, he declared, "The Internet is a baby born premature." He even predicted the great dot com crash that we’re still recovering from.
So what does Roy have to say about the future of the Internet? Roy says that the buying public has finally figured out how to use the Internet and what it's good for: specifically, "information gathering and features-based comparison-shopping."
What does Roy suggest for Web sites today?
1. Ignore heavy graphic sites and focus on providing information for your visitors.
2. Build confidence by interacting with your Web visitors and anticipating and answering their questions.
3. Don’t think “advertising” – think information delivery.
4. Focus on Web site architecture (a simply designed site) and exceptional writing.
5. Help your visitors find what they’re looking for within a few minutes of landing on your site. If you make them hunt for information, they’re gone.
For more information such as what was mentioned above, subscribe to Michael Campbell’s newsletter. Michael is one of the most well-known Internet marketers, and his newsletter is exceptional. http://www.internetmarketingsecrets.com
For more information about Roy H. Williams and his advertising philosophies, visit: http://www.newsbios.com/wizard_of_ads.htm
So, with Roy’s predictions in mind, let’s look at some ways to make our Web sites stronger, more visible, and have a better chance at being succes
A staggering 85% of small businesses destined for failure bite the bullet or go bankrupt during their first five years. The remaining businesses that hang in there only break even: only 4% of new businesses make a sizable profit after 5 years.Lack of marketing savvy is one of the main reasons this happens.Marketing is a waste of time and money if you are not attuned to the real world. Reality is that your clients and prospects are constantly being bombarded with cut-rate pricing, new products and services and enticing offers everyday. Successful marketing can not happen in a vacuum and does not have to cost millions.Instead, businesses can have a very successful marketing program on very little budget if they do it the right ways. During a recent teleseminar for the Internet Master Series, Jay Conrad Levinson outlined a seven sentence marketing plan for listeners. The plan should take no more than five minutes to write and marketers should revisit the plan every 6 months.The plan should follow this outline:1) Define the physical action you want your target audience to take. For example do you want them to buy things, respond to a promotion, click on your website, call your 800# etc. By listing this out you can start to refine your message and determine how to reach your targets.2) Define your competitive advantage that you will stress to get them to take this action step.3) Define your target audience or audiences. Marketers often overlook key audiences so make sure that you list them all.4
So what does Roy have to say about the future of the Internet? Roy says that the buying public has finally figured out how to use the Internet and what it's good for: specifically, "information gathering and features-based comparison-shopping."
What does Roy suggest for Web sites today?
1. Ignore heavy graphic sites and focus on providing information for your visitors.
2. Build confidence by interacting with your Web visitors and anticipating and answering their questions.
3. Don’t think “advertising” – think information delivery.
4. Focus on Web site architecture (a simply designed site) and exceptional writing.
5. Help your visitors find what they’re looking for within a few minutes of landing on your site. If you make them hunt for information, they’re gone.
For more information such as what was mentioned above, subscribe to Michael Campbell’s newsletter. Michael is one of the most well-known Internet marketers, and his newsletter is exceptional. http://www.internetmarketingsecrets.com
For more information about Roy H. Williams and his advertising philosophies, visit: http://www.newsbios.com/wizard_of_ads.htm
So, with Roy’s predictions in mind, let’s look at some ways to make our Web sites stronger, more visible, and have a better chance at being succes
Changing culture or “the way we do things around here” need not be as difficult as it first seems. We often make it more difficult for ourselves because the first and most important change often needs to come from us as leaders.We can make it doubly difficult if we build a project around a focus of changing culture. It can appear that we are changing culture for changing sake. We can also get lost in the forest of consultant jargon, models and methods and miss the trees of the objective we are attempting to reach.To adequately discuss what changing culture is, we need to start with a definition of what organisational culture is. A useful tool for this amongst the plethora of tools available is the Cultural Web developed by Johnson and Scholes.In the Cultural Web, culture is described as the mix of routines and rituals, stories, symbols, control systems, power structures and organisational structure that form the paradigm of the organisation.The routines are the ways that members of the organisation behave towards each other and that link different parts of the organisation. These are the “way we do things around here”. There are also rituals of organisational life, such as training programmes, promotion and assessment which point to what is most important in the organisation.The stories told by members of the organisation embed the present in its organisational history and flag important events and personalities. Other symbolic aspects of organisations such as logos, offices, cars and titles or the type of lan
2. Build confidence by interacting with your Web visitors and anticipating and answering their questions.
3. Don’t think “advertising” – think information delivery.
4. Focus on Web site architecture (a simply designed site) and exceptional writing.
5. Help your visitors find what they’re looking for within a few minutes of landing on your site. If you make them hunt for information, they’re gone.
For more information such as what was mentioned above, subscribe to Michael Campbell’s newsletter. Michael is one of the most well-known Internet marketers, and his newsletter is exceptional. http://www.internetmarketingsecrets.com
For more information about Roy H. Williams and his advertising philosophies, visit: http://www.newsbios.com/wizard_of_ads.htm
So, with Roy’s predictions in mind, let’s look at some ways to make our Web sites stronger, more visible, and have a better chance at being succes
No matter what you sell... products, services, or causes... one of the key ingredients to your success will be the attention you give your sales lead follow-up system.Notice that I used the word 'system' to describe your follow-up program. It's an important conceptual word. If you do not have a well planned, step-by-step system for lead follow-up you are leaving a lot of profits sitting on the table.It is widely accepted that it takes a minimum of five attempts to close a sale (any sale) before the customer has enough information and confidence to buy from you. My own experience, based on years of in-the-trenches experience suggests that the minimum number of timed follow-ups is anywhere from nine to thirty... depending the complexity and/or cost of your products or services. If your idea of follow-up is to bounce one autoresponder message back to your on-line inquiry and expect the cash register to ring, you are in for a shocking surprise.You have heard often, and will continue to hear, that internet marketing is based on the building of relationships with your potential customers. It's true! Indeed, this is one of the true Power Principles of internet marketing.One of the great benefits of the internet is the ease and cost-effectiveness of relationship building.We must understand that our potential customer is inundated with competing advertising messages from various media--television, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, point- of-purchase, direct mail--and now the internet.All of these marketin
For more information about Roy H. Williams and his advertising philosophies, visit: http://www.newsbios.com/wizard_of_ads.htm
So, with Roy’s predictions in mind, let’s look at some ways to make our Web sites stronger, more visible, and have a better chance at being successful.
Purchase your own domain name –
Having a professional image is very important on the Web, and it begins with having your own domain name. Having your Web site located at AOL or one of the free Web hosting companies takes away a level of professionalism.
Let’s face it: purchasing a domain is cheap! Did you know that you can purchase a domain name for $21.95 a YEAR?? That’s it! From there, you’ll want to use a professional hosting company, which will provide an address for your Web site. Combustion Hosting will be glad to take care of purchasing your domain name for you, moving your “old” Web site to their location, and hosting the site for you. Their rates to “host” your domain begin at only $15.49 a month, which is an excellent price. “Hosting” a domain simply means to provide an address on the Web for your site. http://www.combustionhosting.com/moreinfo
Naming your domain –
Before you rush off to purchase a domain, let’s talk for a minute about naming your domain. Most businesses want to name their domain after the name of their company, which is understandable. However, if you can name your domain using keywords that people might be searching for when looking for the products or services you provide, you’re giving your site a small edge with the search engines.
For example, if the name of your company is Simply Southern, and if you purchase the domain name simplysouthern.com, you’re not using any keywords in that domain name, and someone seeing that domain name will have no idea what your site is about.
So, why not purchase simply-southern-catering.com, which will give the engines (and your visitors) a keyword phrase that describes your site: catering.
Your e-mail address --
When you set up your own domain name, be sure to use that domain name in your e-mail address, such as:
Robin@searchengineworkshops.com
Again, this adds a level of professionalism to your business. In my case, I have an e-mail address through my local ISP, which is how I access the Internet. I use a nickname in that e-mail address. Therefo
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