5 Web Site Development Tips to Turn the Tide In Your Favor

By Theresa Cahill

It always pays to be on the alert for sage advice from others, and recently I found something that got me thinking... and now sharing... with you.

In a nutshell, say you want to put together a website of any type - affiliate, shopping, books, clothing, retail, wholesale, etc.

Before you start ask yourself this most important question, "Who will be my competition?"

The answer is simple. Online you are up against the Barnes & Noble's, the Amazon's, the Wal-Mart's... the list is endless.

Will your little website scarf the business away from these biggies? Of course not. Don't even dream.

So what can you do? Here are five ideas to get your web site designed in the right direction:

1. Develop a website designed to draw your visitors in. Since you can't be the best in terms of traffic and pricing (not up against the giants of your industry) you need to come at your business from the opposite direction. For every customer you draw to your site, give them a reason to stick around and then come back for more. Free stuff works like a charm. But make sure it is quality free stuff or you're missing the point.

2. Pick a niche. Versus trying for a conglomerate of everything do your homework and research specifics! Be the only one on your block that provides CDE (not ABC) widgets. If they can only get them from you, or you have the best source, they must come to you. The narrower you focus your site, on keywords and terms people are searching for, the greater you up your odds of being successful online.

3. Speaking of keywords, pick the right ones. If you go to great lengths to design and develop the prettiest, best, etc., website all about XYZ widgets, but no one is looking for them, what good will that do you? Not a darn lick of good. So do your homework first, then set to the task of developing your website around searched-for terms.

4. Maybe you're coming at making money online from the wrong direction. Versus products and stuff, where once again people can go to Barnes & Noble or Wal-Mart, what the internet provides is the perfect arena for savvy marketers to develop informational websites. Think about it... students, teachers, your mother and aunts and uncles all get online to LOOK THINGS UP right? Why not develop first a site that supplies that searched for information and then, on the side, suggests products and services to further that cause? It's easier to get someone to first come read then to come buy - especially if you're an unknown starting out.

5. Have a plan and set aside a budget. Most people love the idea of having their own spot on the web, but if it can't be found among the billions (yes billions) of other web pages, what good is it? Marketing and advertising takes money, patience, and persistence - in that order! - to develop website recognition. Think about these costs before you pour your heart into your design. To "break even" online means covering your hosting, your design (time or hired help), product inclusion, research (again time which is money) and marketing and advertising. Too often hundreds if not thousands of dollars are spent up front only to leave the proud but now poor website owner without the means to market and advertise. A website gathering dust is no website at all.

Having your own spot online - and making money from that spot for some - is the goal and dream of many internet users. The reality is yes your dream can go from rambling around inside your brain to a "physically virtual" place online. Just be sure to do your homework up front to develop that website you've been dreaming about!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Theresa Cahill and her partner Jeff Greer invite you to make wise decisions when planning your next online move. Marketing strategy is a skill not luck. Come visit us at Molten Marketing for more information.

Get Serious About Promoting Your Web Site

By Daryl Putnam

You've built your web site. You've validated, tweaked, optimized and made it as effective, perfect, and useful as possible. You've manually submitted to search engines and relevant directories. Your content is fresh, unique and free of spelling and grammatical errors. You've done everything that you should and yet your web site just sits there, languishing, in Internet obscurity.

We all know that without visitors/traffic there's little chance that your web site is going to accomplish the results you desire. We understand that we need visitors to sell our products or services and we know that it's not enough to rely on search engines to supply the traffic necessary for success.

So what's the secret? How do you get those all important visitors to your web site? Unfortunately their are no quick fixes or magic formulas, that I know of, but their are things that you can do. The first thing that you need to do is get serious about marketing your web site. Let's face it, your not going to have visitors if no one knows you exist. Forget about search engine optimization and start getting the word out. Your site's great, leave it alone and work on promotion.

Once you have decided to do some serious marketing the next thing that you should do is to decide on a strategy and start a marketing campaign. Their are three tried and true strategies that you can use to self-promote your web site that needs no additional software and is absolutely free. Those strategies are writing articles, writing press releases and link requests. In this article we are going to talk about link requests.

link requests In marketing the term popularity refers to sites of the same niche (sites that are relevant to the content of your web site) that link to you. Increasing your popularity is one of, if not the best, form of marketing your web site. So, sit down and write a link request.

Each link request should be as personalized as possible, but to save time, you could create a link request template. You can edit the appropriate information in the template for each request.
The request should be professional, courteous, and to the point. Compliment the webmaster on his or her site, tell them where you have placed their link on your site, where you would like them to place your link, thank them for considering your request and close.

Use the webmasters name When you find a site that you would like to link to you should familiarize yourself with the site. Search the site and find the webmasters name and include it in the subject line and the request. Dear Jim sounds a lot more personal than Dear Webmaster and it proves that you have actually spent time on their web site.

Use your name Introduce yourself immediately by giving your name. "Hi Jim my name is Daryl" makes the request more personal and more apt to be considered by the reader. If you have a business you can also include your phone number. You probably won't get a call but it gives your email much more credibility.

Give your contact information

Illegitimate email does not include contact information so be sure to include your email address and your URL. Let them know that you are eager to hear from them.

When you find a relevant site edit the appropriate information in your template, link to it, and then send the webmaster your link request. Make it as easy as possible for the webmaster to link to your site. If the webmaster has not responded to your request after a predetermined time remove his/her link from your web site.

Link managementAs the number of sites that link to you increases you may want to add a link management system. Link managers automatically check your reciprocal links and remove those that no longer link back to your site. You can find several really good link management scripts that are free to use.

To win you have to compete and to compete you have to get into the game. So send a link request to as many quality relevant sites as possible. The more requests you make, the greater your chances of success. "The squeaky wheel gets the grease". And don't be afraid to ask sites with a high page rank. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The higher the page rank of the site the greater the degree of importance. One link from a site with a rank of 7 is worth 100 with a rank of 0.

Daryl Putnam is the creator of the popular web site Web Essentials and other web based educational Internet sites. He is also the author of numerous authoritative articles on web design and development topics. To learn more about web site design and development visit Web Essentials.

Targeted Web Site Creation - 9 Steps to Make More Money With Web Site Creation

By James Krawder

It is very much possible for making money through web site creation. There is no need of creating sites for other people to make a profit. It is possible for you to make a profit by creating websites for yourself.

When creating a website, it is important that you use a good color combination in the web pages. People visiting the site would not feel the glare because of the colors on the website. You could consider using a white background with black lettering when you have important matter to get across to the reader.

The navigation of the site has to be easy to succeed in web designing. No one likes looking for links when using a website. It is always better to avoid flash designs on the website as these designs take a longer time to download. Not many people are patient enough to wait through the downloading of flash graphics.

When using images in the web page, make sure that they are small and not large. This is because smaller images take a shorter time to download than large images. Another point to remember for successful web designing is that though there are numerous fonts available for you to use on the internet, it is better to use Ariel or Verdana fonts as these fonts are easier to read.

Add some web content to the page that is relevant to the website. When writing content, use keywords that will bring a high search engine ranking for your website. And in the process, more traffic to your website. If you have buttons on your website, restrict the number to a limited few as this is easier for the customer to use when visiting your website.

With these points, it is very much possible for you to make more money through your website creations. And if you have people requiring your services, you just have to do so and charge for your services and thus, earn an additional income for yourself.

Want to learn more about it? Download the free ebook, Steps to Article Marketing Success.