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No matter how brilliant your website design is, if it is hard to reach the content of your site then your site is as useful as an empty shell. Here are some tips to improve the usability of your website to ensure it serves its functions optimally.

The first method is to make sure the typography of your content is suitable. If you have large blocks of text, make sure to use CSS to space out the lines accordingly. The longer a single line of text is, the greater the line-height of each line should be. Also, make sure the font size of your text is big enough to read easily. Some sites have 10-pixel-tall text in Verdana font; while that may look neat and tidy, you have to really strain your eyes to read the actual text.

Make it easy for visitors to find content that they want on your site. If you have thousands of articles on your site and a certain visitor wants to find one single article from that pile, you have to provide a feasible means to enable visitors to do that without hassle. Be it an SQL-driven database search engine or just a glossary or index of articles that you have, providing such a feature will make sure your visitors can use your site with ease.

Ensure that your site loads fast if you do not want to lose visitors. Most internet users will leave a website if it doesn’t load completely within 15 seconds, so make sure the crème de la crème of your website is delivered to the visitors as soon as possible to retain their attention.

Last of all, test each and every link on your site before it goes online. There is nothing more effective in tarnishing your professional image than broken links, so be very careful about that.

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Networking is a vital part of internet marketing, but one that is often overlooked. Working online, it is easy to forget that there are real live people out there who are interested in the same things you are and who are also struggling to get into internet marketing for their own businesses. By hooking up with these other business people, you can form a valuable networking community that in beneficial to all involved.

The best way to start networking is to join internet marketing forums. There you will find like minded webmasters who will be interested in forming liaisons. Also, those who are not appropriate for joint ventures or link sharing will probably have some excellent advice for you. Internet marketing forums are wonderful places to have your questions answered whether you are new to the game or not.

When networking with other internet marketing pros, don’t forget about joint venture partnerships. This is when two or more internet marketing webmasters get together to form a temporary partnership that is mutually beneficial. This might be teaming up to create an information product giveaway event, where everyone chips in a product and their opt in list, or it could simply be writing an e-book together. The choices are endless, really, but this is a form of internet marketing that should never be ignored.

Another vital part of internet marketing is forming a network of affiliates. If you have a product that lends itself to an affiliate program you should certainly consider it! Imagine an entire army of vendors selling your products! They can reach places that would take you months or even years to get into. This is internet marketing at its finest. And setting up an affiliate program doesn’t need to be a hassle if you go through a reputable website like Clickbank or ShareASale. These programs will help you get your networking with affiliates off the ground for a modest fee.

You can also start networking by looking at websites that are similar to yours, but not necessarily in direct competition. Write the owner and ask if they would be interested in doing a link share or even mutual reviews of each other’s website. This can be a great way to expand your internet marketing network as well as make new friends and get some reciprocal links, which allows you to tap into the other site’s visitors.

Just taking the time to get to know other internet marketing specialists is a form of internet marketing in itself. You are not only learning, but answering questions and forming business bonds that could be extremely useful to you in the future. Plus, by speaking with other webmasters, you increase interest in your website and if you have high quality content, someone from your new network might even link to you without being asked to! A mention on their website is even better and a full-on recommendation will send you loads of potential customers.

Internet marketing can be a bit tricky when you are first getting into it, but with a bit of networking skill, you can quickly learn what you’re doing and turn your website into a success.

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Graphics can add a real nice touch to a website . . . or they can slow it down so much that no one will wait for the page to load! Webmasters designing new pages are forced to examine the pros and cons of web page graphics. As you plan your latest website project, will you use graphics or not, and if so, should you? Here we will look at both sides of the equation.

It all boils down to functionality. If you are selling paintings on your website, you will obviously need graphics, no two ways about it. The same goes for nearly any kind of product that could be featured graphically, such as books, stereos, etc. People like to see what they are buying, so you pretty much need to have pictures for these items.

However, if you are going to put photos of your products up, you should consider making them thumbnails for faster loading and make them clickable. Clients can then choose which one they want to see in more detail and click to see the full version. Since they know what they are doing, they won’t mind waiting a little extra time to see the product graphics.

Apart from purely practical use, should you use graphics on your website? That depends on what kind of graphics you want to use. You need to make the page easy to read and relatively fast to load. This rules out most giant graphics, such as photographic backgrounds, unless they are absolutely necessary.

If you do decide to use some reasonably sized graphics, you should try to limit the number per page. While a cute logo is fine, having little animals all over your sidebars and buttons can be not only distracting, but it also looks pretty unprofessional. Cluttering up your site with too many graphics is not generally a good idea, it gives a bad impression and if you are trying to sell something, an amateur look is not the way to go, no matter how fun it is.

When deciding whether or not to add graphics to your website, you should consider whether or not it adds quality to the page. Do you feel that your website will be represented through the graphic you are considering? Will it help sell your products? Is it going to convince the customer to stay when they might have thought about clicking away? If you find yourself saying yes to any one of the above questions, you have a good reason to be putting graphics on your site. Otherwise, you should probably forget about it and stick to a more simplistic look.

The decision of whether or not to display graphics on your website really is a personal one, but it can make all the difference in terms of sales and how many visitors actually stay on the page! If it takes too long to load graphics that you simply must have, try lowering the resolution a bit for faster loading times. Remember that people are impatient and will simply click away to another site if yours is too slow or too cluttered.

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When you are first starting up your e-business, it can be difficult to decide which webhost to go with. While free looks appealing, it does have it’s setbacks and you might prefer to go with paid, but it is good to get all the options before making a major decision! For e-businesses with a very low budget, starting off on a free webhost can be the best choice, but you need to know what you are looking for.

Free webhosting for e-business has obvious appeal because you don’t have to pay, of course! However, while free hosting can be nice, you do usually get what you pay for. They aren’t just giving away space for nothing, the webhosts still need to earn money and most do that by placing ads on your website.

Having banner ads or a notice that says “Get Your Free Website Here” on your e-business site is not very professional, so you might want to look for other options in this case. There are free webhosts for e-business that allow for ad-free websites, but they are usually extremely limited in the way of space and bandwidth. As long as you stay small and don’t need to upload videos or major files, you can use these providers for your e-business.

Most e-businesses prefer to have their own domain name as it appears far more professional than a website hosted under a subdomain such as www.freehost.yourbusiness.com. If you decide to go with a free webhost, you need to make sure that you select one that allows for outside domain names. There are free hosts out there that allow for this and it really is your best option. If you are doing marketing and promotion for your e-business, you don’t want to lose all that traffic simply by moving to a new webhost later on. A domain name allows you to switch hosts without losing your traffic, you can simply redirect your domain.

Another thing to watch for when you are searching for a free webhost for your e-business site is upgradeable hosts. This means that if you like the webhost and everything is going well, when you need to expand, you can easily do so by simply starting to pay a low monthly fee. This gives you more space, bandwidth and other options for your e-business.

If you plan to monetize your e-business website with Adsense or another type of ad, you will probably be banned from doing this on any webhost that already runs Adsense themselves. An ad-free site is more likely to allow your ads to be placed, but make sure you check this out before signing up. It’s no fun having to redesign your entire e-business website just because you missed a “no ad posting” clause!

If you find a host that offers free webhosting without ads, with paid upgrades, allows for domain names and your own ads, plus the space that you need to get started, you have the perfect webhost for your e-business. It really does pay to shop around.

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Convincing your prospects to purchase from you is a hard job, but have you ever thought that you’re making the process twice as difficult for both parties if your prospects are convinced but don’t know how to buy from you? No matter how good you are at convincing your prospects, they won’t buy if they find the process cumbersome.

First, you will want to check that people can find your order form easily and hassle-free. You can write a clear, concise paragraph to direct your prospects to your order form so that you can minimize the chances of them getting lost. You can also reduce the chances of losing prospects by putting a prominent link to your order page from every other page on your site.

Also, do you offer multiple payment options? Some people may feel comfortable paying via Paypal, some may only want to pay with their credit card and others might want to send a cheque. The more options you offer, the better your chances of covering your prospects’ desired payment method. After all, it wouldn’t make any sense to sell hard to a prospect only to find that they won’t be able to pay you when they want to.

On the other hand, you will want to prove that you are a credible merchant. Is your order form secured using encryption technology? You would want to look into SSL for this. You can also offer a money back guarantee so that people will feel confident about buying from you. How about after sales support? Who do they contact when they have problems after purchasing?

Alternatively, you can add customer testimonials, your contact information, address, and so on to boost your prospects’ confidence. Make them feel safe about buying something from you, a total stranger to them on the other end of the Internet.

As a conclusion, it would be very pitiful if you sold hard and sold well to a prospect and something goes wrong when he or she is ready to pay. Eliminate any chances of that to maximize your profits!

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There are companies such as Picky Domain Names that specialize in finding the perfect URL for your business, but there is no reason why you can’t do the same thing yourself, for free! All it takes is a good imagination and some time to brainstorm. If you have friends who can help, all the better.

Most of the regular domain names have been bought up and used now, so it is a real challenge to find ones that are unique, describe your business and are easy to remember. That’s why you need to get creative.

-First off, there are a few general ground rules to ensure that your visitors remember your domain names. This is obviously the most important part of choosing an URL, so keep the following in mind:

-Limit yourself to a maximum of three words. Longer phrases tend to be difficult to remember and also they take too long to type in. People want information fast and if they have to try and remember a twenty letter URL, they probably won’t bother.

-Use words that are easy to spell. If you use weirdly spelled words just to get the domain names you want, you will lose a lot of visitors. For example, if myspace.com is taken, don’t go for myspayce.com, you will just end up sending traffic to the other domain name.

-Think carefully before using anything apart from .com as an ending for your domain names. It is the most common and often people will forget if you use a more unusual ending such as .name or .tv.

Now that you have the basics in mind, it is time to brainstorm. Start by writing down all the words you can think of that relate to your business. For example, if you have a diaper service, you would end up with a list of keywords that include “diaper, diapers, baby, bottom, cloth, wet, dirty, clean, service” etc. Include any slang or nicknames as well, such as “nappy, stinky,” etc.

Once you have a good long list, start trying to put the words together in a form that would work as domain names. You should be able to come up with at least a dozen that fit the description of your business. For our diaper service example you might end up with nomorestink.com, dirtytoclean.com, nappybottom.com, etc.

Next, you need to go to a domain names registrar such as GoDaddy and check to see if your domain names are available. Start with the ones you like best and work your way down the list. Chances are you will find at least two or three that are available. These are then your choices for domain names!

This whole process works best if you have two or more people to bounce ideas off of. Domain names that are wacky and outrageous are sure to come up as you work your way through a brainstorming session with friends or coworkers! And at the end of it all, you should have a handful of domain names that you can go with.

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Article marketing basically consists of submitting your promo pieces to article directories and hoping that they will be approved. However, there is a better way of doing things than simply submitting and waiting with crossed fingers. The trick is to guarantee that article directories accept your work.

It takes time and effort in order to write an article, submit it by hand to the article directories (the recommended method), and if you get rejected, you have wasted all of that time. Simply completing the submission process can take a minute or two and if you are submitting to several article directories or are trying to send multiple submissions to one, that could easily add up to half an hour, time for you to write a whole other article!

The best way to guarantee that article directories accept your work is to be familiar with their guidelines. Each directory is different, but by following general rules, you can ensure that everyone will accept your article. The editors are not usually that picky, as long as you follow formatting guidelines and stick to non-offensive information, you have a pretty good chance of adding your work to the roster.

Formatting guidelines for article directories are pretty standard. If you write an article that is between 400-800 words, you will be fine for length. Article directories tend to like their articles formatted for the web, which means writing in the same manner as this article that you are reading right now, single spaced lines, with a double space between paragraphs. This is easy to read and easy to write, as well. Avoid using TABS or indentation and stay away from automated numbers and bulleted lists. While using number is encouraged for steps, just make sure that your word processor isn’t adding them and indenting them automatically.

Your paragraphs should be fairly short as well. Three to four sentences is usually good. This means there is plenty of white space on the page and gets your article noticed faster. While the editors might accept your article even with long paragraphs, webmasters and ezine editors will be more likely looking for something that is easy on the eyes.

Spellchecking is a must for any article that will see the light of day. There is no excuse for submitting misspelled words to article directories. They will not accept this. All basic grammar rules should be followed, as well. Capitalization at the beginning of sentences and all other such rules need to be applied or your article will probably be rejected. The idea is to look professional, even if that means getting someone else to critique your work.

Links are also a no-no in many article directories and it is best to simply avoid them. If you want to add a link, you can do so in your bio at the end of the article. Otherwise, you can mention company names (like Chapters), but not the site (chapters.com). This will boost your chances of getting accepted into article directories drastically.

By following the guidelines above and making sure to read the submission rules on all article directories that you submit to, you will be sure to have success.

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Website templates are very affordable and they save you a lot of effort and time when you want to create a new layout for your website. However, a lot of people make mistakes in the process of choosing and using a web template and end up with something that was unlike the image they had in mind. Here are some guidelines to help you avoid those mistakes.

The first obvious mistake you should be aware of is using a template that is very popular. If many people use the same template, your website will not appear unique at all and your credibility as a solid, different website will be tarnished. In other words, you will appear generic just like your next-door neighbours.

To whole point of using a web template is to save time and effort. You just change the title and appropriate details and you’re done. The biggest mistake one makes is to customize the template beyond recognisation. While that may be good in the sense that you’re creating a unique graphic, you’re defying the very purpose of using a web template — saving time and effort.

However, on the opposite side, if a template you purchase is suitable but some changes must be made to suit your site’s theme, then you will have to take some time to make the changes. For example, you can find a very nice template that suits your hobby site except the original designer has put an image of stamps in the header. You can find images of garden plants and spades to replace the stamps for your gardening hobby site. However, do only make the necessary changes and don’t redesign the whole template.

In some circumstances, some people simply make the wrong choice of templates. This is a very subjective issue but you have to be careful in selecting templates to suit your audience. Do not choose templates just because they are pretty, choose them because they serve your purpose.

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Flash-based sites have been a craze since the past few years, and as Macromedia compiles more and more great features into Flash, we can only predict there will be more and more flash sites around the Internet. However, Flash based sites have been disputed to be bloated and unnecessary. Where exactly do we draw the line? Here’s a simple breakdown.

The good:

Interactivity

Flash’s Actionscript opens up a vast field of possibilities. Programmers and designers have used Flash to create interactve features ranging from very lively feedback forms to attractive Flash-based games. This whole new level of interactivity will always leave visitors coming back for more.

A standardized site

With Flash, you do not have to worry about cross-browser compatibility. No more woes over how a certain css code displays differently in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera. When you position your site elements in Flash, they will always appear as they are as long as the user has Flash Player installed.

Better expression through animation

In Flash, one can make use of its animating features to convey a message in a much more efficient and effective way. Flash is a lightweight option for animation because it is vector based (and hence smaller file sizes) as opposed to real “movie files” that are raster based and hence much larger in size.

The bad and the ugly:

The Flash player

People have to download the Flash player in advance before they can view Flash movies, so by using Flash your visitor range will decrease considerably because not everyone will be willing to download the Flash player just to view your site. You’ll also have to put in additional work in redirecting the user to the Flash download page if he or she doesn’t have the player installed.

Site optimization

If your content was presented in Flash, most search engines wouldn’t be able to index your content. Hence, you will not be able to rank well in search engines and there will be less traffic heading to your site.

Loading time

Users have to wait longer than usual to load Flash content compared to regular text and images, and some visitors might just lose their patience and click the Back button. The longer your Flash takes to load, the more you risk losing visitors.

The best way to go is to use Flash only when you absolutely need the interactivity and motion that comes with it. Otherwise, use a mixture of Flash and HTML or use pure text if your site is purely to present simple textual and graphical information.

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Even though more and more Internet users switch to broadband every year, a large portion of the web’s population is still running on good old dialup connections. It is therefore unwise to count them out of the equation when you’re designing your website, and a very major consideration we have to make for dialup users is the loading time of your website.

Generally, all the text on your website will be loaded in a very short time even on a dialup connection. The culprit of slow-loading sites is mainly large images on your website, and it is very important to strike a delicate balance between using just enough images to attract your users and not to bog down the overall loading time of your site.

You should also go to a greater length and optimize every image on your site to make sure it loads in the least time possible. What I really mean is to use image editing software to remove unnecessary information on your images, and thereby effectively reducing the file size of your image without affecting its appearance.

If you own Photoshop, it will be obvious to you that when you save an image as a JPEG file, a dialog box appears and lets you choose the “quality” of the JPEG image — normally a setting of 8 to 10 is good enough as it will preserve the quality of your image while saving it at a small file size. If you do not have Photoshop, there are many free image compressors online that you can download and use to reduce your image’s file size.

On the other hand, you can opt to save your images in PNG format to get the best quality at the least file size. You can also save your images in GIF format — the image editing software clips away all the color information not used in your image, hence giving you the smallest file size possible. However, saving in GIF format will often compromise the appearance of your image, so make your choice wisely!

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