How to Optimize Your Web Images
Download Free Copy Of 14 Point Web Copy Analysis
Images are important. The right images can change the look of your web pages instantly and, more importantly, they can instantly boost your online sales.
However, your images must come up quickly. Graphics that are not properly optimized can slow down your web pages considerably, and a slow web site will cost you sales. Apply the following techniques to help speed up your pages, keep potential buyers at your site, and boost sales.
* Keep images and graphics as small as possible in file size. The larger the file sizes, the longer the images take to download.
* Always optimize images before placing them on your web site. Optimizing compresses a file and reduces the file size while maintaining the highest image quality possible.
* Reduce your file size by saving images in the proper graphic format. GIF or JPEG are the most popular formats for web images.
* Avoid large and unnecessary graphics -- especially on your home page. Only use images that support your sales message. If you have too many images on your pages, they will distract your visitors and will dramatically slow down the opening of those pages.
* If large images are necessary to illustrate your products, display smaller images (thumbnails), and provide links to the larger versions (which will open on a new page).
* Crop images. If, for example, you are showing a photo of a person using your product, much of the surrounding background is not necessary to support your sales message. Every bit that you remove or "crop out (remove) helps to lower the file size of that image.
* Reduce the number of colors in clipart and illustrations. The more colors in an image, the bigger the file size and therefore the more time it takes to open a page.
* Use gradients sparingly. They contain two or more colors and produce a larger file size than a single solid color.
* Keep the resolution of your images at 72 dpi, the maximum resolution a computer monitor can read.
* Include ALT tags in your images. The ALT attribute provides an alternative text description for images. ALT text displays before the image is loaded in the major browsers and instead of the image if images are turned off. ALT tags tell search engines what an image is about but they are less important for search engine optimization today. Alternative text is still appreciated today by users with accessibility requirements and users wanting to optimize bandwidth use.
Pictures can instantly improve the look of your web site, but it won't matter how good they look if they significantly slow down the opening of your web pages. Use high quality, relevant pictures that support your sales message but make sure they are optimized.
Increase response of your sales letters - add hand-drawn notes, doodles and expressions. Visit http://www.profitablewebstrategies.com/copydoodles.html
Saturday, December 13, 2008
How to Optimize Your Web Images
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Build a Web Page That Sells!
Build a Web Page That Sells!
Download Free Copy Of 14 Point Web Copy Analysis
A webpage (or web page), as it’s referred to, is one page. A website is made up of webpages.
Sometimes the one page sites are referred to as “mini-sites."
I like to think of them as an advertisement!
The reason I put up one page websites is to sell something.
In order to sell something my site has to satisfy some conditions.
It has to offer a solution to somebodys problem! There are any number of problems when it comes to the human condition, and, if you have a solution to the problem, you can probably sell it online.
So a relevant example would be a site that sells web software and a tuition course for that software. Website making software is one of the biggest sales catagories on the web.
That’s precisely because they can be used for so many different things AND be made to reach those people who are interested in that websites offering.
What if you were a piano dealer? When you run an advertisement in the newspaper people who need tires for their car see your ad for pianos. That's a bad match.
But, when you make a website about the history of pianos…the people who type a search query into the Google box like “history of pianos” may discover you almost immediately. That’s relevance. These people are NOT looking for tires. Otherwise they would have typed in “tires”!
It’s a message to market match! That’s what makes websites work.
To make a website page (webpage, page) you need an HTML editor. Basically this is a word processor (sort of). When you type onto the page the word “Hello” the editor software creates the necessary HTML code that computers can read on the web.
I call that the "backside". Like pictures and text on the front and the code for that on the back.
That is what an HTML editor does for you. It lets you arrange the page the way you like it,and, as you are doing that it is compiling the code on what I call the backside.
It makes it pretty darn easy.
You don’t want to know everything about this code. You want to be able to write “Click here for more info” on the page and when someone sees it on the webpage and clicks on it the software code takes the clicker right to it, right away.
These wonderful things are called “links”.
It may be that they (links) are the most important part of the whole HTML experience because it allows you to effortlessly place your customer in front of a message you want them to see. With just a click.
I'll bet you can imagine what to do with links, and after a few experiments with it you will be a pro.
Open an HTML editor on your computer and ask for a blank document. Type into that document something like this...
"How would you like to see something really cool?"
Leave that sit for a moment and go out on the web and find something really cool. A pretty picture will do.
When you find something you want to practice linking to, go up to the top of your browser window and copy the thing that usually starts with "http://". Copy the whole thing.
Now go back to your HTML editor and find the "link" symbol.
Then, select the words "something really cool" and click the link symbol.
Paste the url you copied into the link box and, maybe, pick "Open in new window" Then, test the link.
You've done it and now you know how to link to anything on the web and that would include affiliate product landing pages and a whole host of other opportunities.
Listen, I know that if you are just getting started, web page building can seem intimidating.
That's just because you aren't familiar with it.
That's why one of the scammier headlines you'll see would read like this "Earn $300 per day and You Don't Need a Website!"
That's just a hook. They know their market target! People who don't know how to deal with HTML editors, that's who!
Don't let that be you! You go, folks. You can do it! It even gets fun in a little while.
If you want to make simple sites that sell the first thing you need to be able to do is make one with an HTML Editor. I have a great offer at my website about websites. AND if you are interested (and who wouldn’t be) I also have a perfect product for you to sell on your spanky new webpage and it’s just $9 bucks. Go now to http://www.makinganinternetmarketer.com
Sunday, November 30, 2008
The Importance Of A Professional Designed Website
The Importance Of A Professional Designed Website
Download Free Copy 14 Point Web Copy Analysis
Your website is the hub of your online business; it is the virtual representation of your company whether your company exists physically or not. When you are doing business online, people cannot see you physically like how they could if they were dealing with an offline company. Hence, people do judge you by your covers. This is where a good design comes in.
Imagine if you are running an offline company. Would you allow your salespersons to be dressed in shabby or casual clothes when they are dealing with your customers? By making your staff wear professionally, you are telling your customers that you do care about quality. This works simply because first impressions matter.
Similarly, the same case is with your website. If your website is put together shabbily and looks like a 5 minute "quick fix", you are literally shouting to your visitors that you are not professional and you do not care for quality.
On the opposite, if you have a totally professional looking website layout, you are giving your visitors the perception that you have given meticulous attention to every detail and you care about professionalism. You are organised, focused and you really mean business.
On the other hand, you should also have anything related to your company well designed. From business cards to letterheads to promotional brochures, every little bit matters. This is because as you grow your business, these items become the face of your business. Once again, think of the "salesperson dressed shabbily" anology, and you will get my point.
There is no point in building a website unless there are visitors coming in. A major source of traffic for most sites on the Internet is search engines like Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Altavista and so on. Hence, by designing a search engine friendly site, you will be able to rank easily in search engines and obtain more visitors.
Major search engines use programs called crawlers or robots to index websites to list on their search result pages. They follow links to a page, reads the content of the page and record it in their own database, pulling up the listing as people search for it.
If you want to make your site indexed easily, you should avoid using frames on your website. Frames will only confuse search engine robots and they might even abandon your site because of that. Moreover, frames make it difficult for users to bookmark a specific page on your site without using long, complicated scripts.
Do not present important information in Flash movies or in images. Search engine robots can only read text on your source code so if you present important words in Flash movies and images rather than textual form, your search engine ranking will be affected dramatically.
Use meta tags accordingly on each and every page of your site so that search engine robots know at first glance what that particular page is about and whether or not to index it. By using meta tags, you are making the search engine robots job easier so they will crawl and index your site more frequently.
Stop using wrong HTML tags like "font" to style your page. Use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) instead because they are more effective and efficient. By using CSS, you can eliminate redundant HTML tags and make your pages much lighter and faster to load.
Thomas is a Direct Response Graphic Designer. You can see his latest Online eCover Generator here: http://www.ecover-go.com/ and the popular Photoshop Action Script Package here: http://www.ecovergo.com/
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
The Top Ten Reasons Small Business Owners Should Build Their Own Website
The Top Ten Reasons Small Business Owners Should Build Their Own Website
Download Free Copy Of Small Business Success Secrets
If you own a small business or practice (selling your services, like an accountant, a therapist, a consultant) and don't have a website yet, it is not too late. And it doesn't have to be a big deal.
In this economy, the winners are going to be those who continue to market and promote. If you haven't gotten around to putting a website up (enough business, referrals, just avoiding), do it now. You are conspicuous by your absence.
You have probably heard horror stories from colleagues about the web designer who flaked on them or paying thousands but getting nothing. Learn from the mistakes of your predecessors and when you do embark on the Internet adventure, seize control of it!
Don't hire that web guy you met at a networking meeting or have your kid do it for you on college break. If you are serious about making your website an important part of your marketing, you must control it yourself.
There are content management systems (like Web Power Tools and others) that make a website as easy as typing a letter in Word.
Here are the top ten business reasons you should build and maintain your own professional website:
1. It's Easy To Change - Your business will change. You'll add a service, you'll change your tag line. Something. If your web guy is the only one who can change your website holding it hostage (for a fee), you won't keep it up to date. An out of date website can be worse than no website at all.
2. You'll Cut Out The Middleman - You are responsible for the content anyway. Why not just do it yourself?
3. Investment - It's a lot cheaper. Even if you get a freelance person to do it for the same price as a template, you'll have to pay again and again when you want to touch your site.
4. It's The Right Amount of Website - The reality of a business website is that it needs to be good enough to get the job done! Not over-the-top with music and animation. Your clients want the appropriate information presented clearly and you don't need a designer to do that.
5. Speed - You can do it quickly. In just an hour or two. Start with just one or two pages and then as you develop more content, you can add it.
6. Getting Found - Search engines like sites with changing content. If you have to pay your web guy every time you want to add a new event or change a link to an upcoming teleclass, you won't do it and then your search rankings will go down.
7. Test - If you control your website, you can use it to test new ideas and offerings. A summer special, a discount offer. Just put it up and see what happens.
8. Course-Correct As Needed - When you build your own website, you can easily track the traffic and statistics patterns, seeing where your visitors were referred from, what pages they visited, how long they stayed. This is meaty information you can really learn from.
9. Don't Reinvent The Wheel - Working with a templated system gives you straightforward guidelines on best practices and what pages and content to develop so you don't have to reinvent the wheel.
10. End Procrastination - You can finally cross "build a website" off your list!
The Internet is here to stay and your business needs to get on board. Control your web marketing yourself and see how effective it can be!
Deborah Gallant is an internet marketing trainer, author and business coach that provides affordable website design & development tools for service professionals. Visit their website (http://www.webpowertools.com/) for a free 30-day trial and internet marketing eBook.
