by: Gally Reznor
Congratulation, you finely decided to upgrade your business with a website. This is really important step which can take your business to a new level structurally and financially.
1. Well built and properly advertised website can bring you hundreds of new customers who wouldn't have heard about your business otherwise.
2. Most of people do not search for services on yellow pages no more but open Google , Yahoo, MSN, etc. Therefore your presence on the net is a very important strategy to earn new clients.
3. Website is your face when it comes to clients who arrive to you via the net. If your website is well built, even if you are a small business owner, clients will be more willing to work with you.
Now that we understand the importance of a good, reliable website for a business, let's go over some basic steps to make sure your website will be a success story:
Determine your budget:
Website building can cost you nothing or cost you thousands of dollars. I think that the best site is the one which benefit will excel its cost. Therefore every business owner must determine his appropriate budget .
Some companies offer absolutely free websites. There are some advantages and some disadvantages in such a website. The first and the biggest advantage is the zero cost. If your website turns out useless , you don't lose any money. The main disadvantages of free websites are usually the limited storage space (which means you can't build a large website) and limited bandwidth (if many users enter your site at once, it might become slow or even unavailable).
If you have a large sum of money to put on your web site, you may go to a custom Web Design firm. They will usually offer you two or three unique design sketches which they embed in their Content Management System and a directions about how to enter your content into it. The problem about this option is it's high cost.
There is no second chance to create a first impression:
Design is naturally one of the most important aspects in website success. Website design must represent your business as a prosperous, impressive and trustworthy therefore there is no place to disregard it.
Quality content:
In order to be found in search engines and attract serious visitors you must fill your website with high quality content. We suggest you enter information about yourself , your business and products. Professional articles and further information from your field of interest might add more value to the website and present you as an expert in your field.
Keeping in touch:
Once you have earned clients you better keep in touch with them. There are number of fast and cost effective ways to do so:
1.By mail. Today spam mail is a felony, but once a customer signed up at your website and gave his agreement to receive your e-mails, you should keep in touch with him , informing him about new products, services and sales.
2. By SMS. If your business is very dynamic you might use the SMS technology to keep in touch with your clients at real time.
3. Keep in touch with your clients by blogs and forums where you can offer them technical support
Sabtu, 23 Agustus 2008
Create Your Own Website: A How To Guide
by: Tem Balanco
Nothing is as invaluable as a website when it comes to airing your ideas, authoring opinion pieces, distributing photos, or marketing your business products. Having your very own website can be a boon to you, but there are a few things you should know first before setting out to create your own website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/).
Decide why you want to create your own website. Do you want to let others know of your political leanings, do you want to write fiction, or are you looking for an online store? Each of these will lead to a different kind of website, and each will have a different audience.
Next step is to determine how comfortable you are with web page creation. If you are not proficient in computers, try to hire a professional. If, on the other hand, you enjoy learning how to do new things on the Internet, then using a free or inexpensive do-it-yourself type of hosting should be enjoyable.
You need to determine what level of control you desire. Utilizing the free hosting will provide you with a few different background colors and styles. If you have further needs or wants, you may have to pay additional fees, or even use the services of a professional.
Another thing to consider when you create your own website is to choose a template. Many free hosting vendors have a variety of templates that you can choose from. You can decide which colors and style will be most attractive to your future audience. You will probably be able to alter the template in minor ways, but the overall style will remain the same.
You will want to think about obtaining a domain name. There are many companies that sell domain names. If you want to make a website, you will need software. This software will help you design your website, and it is important if you want to control a lot of different areas of your site. It is possible that you will need some knowledge if you want to make a webpage from software.
If you don't know what to do first, choose one of the free step-by-step instructional guides found on the Internet outlining how to create a website. For other ways to learn about how to create a website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/), many e-books are offered that incorporate free HTML tutorials, website software, information of registering domain names, guides to website design, and more.
Nothing is as invaluable as a website when it comes to airing your ideas, authoring opinion pieces, distributing photos, or marketing your business products. Having your very own website can be a boon to you, but there are a few things you should know first before setting out to create your own website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/).
Decide why you want to create your own website. Do you want to let others know of your political leanings, do you want to write fiction, or are you looking for an online store? Each of these will lead to a different kind of website, and each will have a different audience.
Next step is to determine how comfortable you are with web page creation. If you are not proficient in computers, try to hire a professional. If, on the other hand, you enjoy learning how to do new things on the Internet, then using a free or inexpensive do-it-yourself type of hosting should be enjoyable.
You need to determine what level of control you desire. Utilizing the free hosting will provide you with a few different background colors and styles. If you have further needs or wants, you may have to pay additional fees, or even use the services of a professional.
Another thing to consider when you create your own website is to choose a template. Many free hosting vendors have a variety of templates that you can choose from. You can decide which colors and style will be most attractive to your future audience. You will probably be able to alter the template in minor ways, but the overall style will remain the same.
You will want to think about obtaining a domain name. There are many companies that sell domain names. If you want to make a website, you will need software. This software will help you design your website, and it is important if you want to control a lot of different areas of your site. It is possible that you will need some knowledge if you want to make a webpage from software.
If you don't know what to do first, choose one of the free step-by-step instructional guides found on the Internet outlining how to create a website. For other ways to learn about how to create a website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/), many e-books are offered that incorporate free HTML tutorials, website software, information of registering domain names, guides to website design, and more.
Make Your Own Website: Achieve Success With Your Site
by: Tem Balanco
There are many reasons for you to make your own website. You may want to sell a product or service, or you may want to share your thoughts and dreams with the world. No matter what you want to do online, you can design a website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/) to do it. When you are thinking of making a site on your own, there are a few things to think about.
The first thing you will want to decide before you make your own website is what you want to accomplish by doing so. This is the most important thing you can do when you are ready to make a website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/). Knowing the purpose will allow you to make any other decisions more clearly.
After you have completed these stages, you need to locate the company that will be your web host. This company will provide several important pieces for you. At a minimum, they will be responsible for registering your name and associating it with an appropriate web address. In general, you will be running your service from their space, so the host takes over administrative and physical security responsibilities. If you choose to use their equipment, you must sign an agreement concerning additional charges should you need more bandwidth or disk space than the minimums.
Dedicated web space is space that you paid for. There are no advertisements on dedicated web space unless you want there to be. Unlike free hosts, paid hosts will not insert ads onto your site. If you make your own website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/) and pay for the hosting, therefore, you have more control. Choosing your own domain name allows you to personalize the site even further.
There is a ton of information about website building online. Some companies offer website building tools, while others only use HTML code. You will be able to find lots of HTML tutorials online if you are interested in learning. Doing a quick search in your favorite search engine will find hundreds of links to websites that offer these tutorials.
The sky is the limit from here. You will be able to create a personalized and snazzy site. How it ends up is up to you. You can put as much time into the project as you want. Either way, when you make your own website, you will end up with something that is entirely your own. This is almost a form of art.
There are many reasons for you to make your own website. You may want to sell a product or service, or you may want to share your thoughts and dreams with the world. No matter what you want to do online, you can design a website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/) to do it. When you are thinking of making a site on your own, there are a few things to think about.
The first thing you will want to decide before you make your own website is what you want to accomplish by doing so. This is the most important thing you can do when you are ready to make a website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/). Knowing the purpose will allow you to make any other decisions more clearly.
After you have completed these stages, you need to locate the company that will be your web host. This company will provide several important pieces for you. At a minimum, they will be responsible for registering your name and associating it with an appropriate web address. In general, you will be running your service from their space, so the host takes over administrative and physical security responsibilities. If you choose to use their equipment, you must sign an agreement concerning additional charges should you need more bandwidth or disk space than the minimums.
Dedicated web space is space that you paid for. There are no advertisements on dedicated web space unless you want there to be. Unlike free hosts, paid hosts will not insert ads onto your site. If you make your own website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/) and pay for the hosting, therefore, you have more control. Choosing your own domain name allows you to personalize the site even further.
There is a ton of information about website building online. Some companies offer website building tools, while others only use HTML code. You will be able to find lots of HTML tutorials online if you are interested in learning. Doing a quick search in your favorite search engine will find hundreds of links to websites that offer these tutorials.
The sky is the limit from here. You will be able to create a personalized and snazzy site. How it ends up is up to you. You can put as much time into the project as you want. Either way, when you make your own website, you will end up with something that is entirely your own. This is almost a form of art.
Design Your Own Website- It Is Simple
by: Tem Balanco
Before you embark upon the process involved when you design your own website, you must select and register a domain name. That is your site's brand name and contact name. In order to be given a domain name of your very own, you must make a yearly payment to the appropriate registering entity to obtain the exclusive right to it.
Obtaining a domain name doesn't mean you have a web site or anything close. All you have is a name. It is similar to getting yourself set up with a name for your business is the "real" world - just obtaining exclusive rights to a name doesn't mean you are totally in business. You just have a name.
A web host commonly implements numerous computers that are all linked to the Internet to allow a very large number of web pages to be broadcast all over the world. The first step in making your new web page visible is to use a reputable web host that will give your personalized website a virtual home.
Thinking of a domain name is very much like thinking of a name for your company in the physical world. Similarly, a web hosting account is the equivalent of renting an office for your company. After you have come up with a domain name and signed on with a web host, you will then need to design your own website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/) to attract visitors.
As a beginning web designer, you first need to design your own website in a attractive, and appealing manner. After you have got your basic web page posted you will be able to make any adjustments that you feel are needed. There are free web editors and commercial versions that are widely available.
When you choose to use free software, you can also learn more from a complete tutorial on the web. The step-by-step tutorial will guide you in the process of making your own web page, site map, and comment forms. It will also give you tips on the basic aspects of the software so you can continue to update and improve the site in the future.
A crucial aspect of web development is optimizing your site for search engines. This should be undertaken from the very start of the design process. In addition, there are a number of other concerns involved in developing web pages.
Before you embark upon the process involved when you design your own website, you must select and register a domain name. That is your site's brand name and contact name. In order to be given a domain name of your very own, you must make a yearly payment to the appropriate registering entity to obtain the exclusive right to it.
Obtaining a domain name doesn't mean you have a web site or anything close. All you have is a name. It is similar to getting yourself set up with a name for your business is the "real" world - just obtaining exclusive rights to a name doesn't mean you are totally in business. You just have a name.
A web host commonly implements numerous computers that are all linked to the Internet to allow a very large number of web pages to be broadcast all over the world. The first step in making your new web page visible is to use a reputable web host that will give your personalized website a virtual home.
Thinking of a domain name is very much like thinking of a name for your company in the physical world. Similarly, a web hosting account is the equivalent of renting an office for your company. After you have come up with a domain name and signed on with a web host, you will then need to design your own website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/) to attract visitors.
As a beginning web designer, you first need to design your own website in a attractive, and appealing manner. After you have got your basic web page posted you will be able to make any adjustments that you feel are needed. There are free web editors and commercial versions that are widely available.
When you choose to use free software, you can also learn more from a complete tutorial on the web. The step-by-step tutorial will guide you in the process of making your own web page, site map, and comment forms. It will also give you tips on the basic aspects of the software so you can continue to update and improve the site in the future.
A crucial aspect of web development is optimizing your site for search engines. This should be undertaken from the very start of the design process. In addition, there are a number of other concerns involved in developing web pages.
Build Web Page Which Is Effective
by: Tem Balanco
There are a few critical places in building a web page (http://www.buildyoursite.com/) where you must make the right decision, or you'll have to repeat this task again and again until you get it right. The better you grasp these essential points, the better your web page will work and the happier camper you'll be.
As a website builder, make sure you know what the project can do for you. If you are the owner of a business, you want to maximize your business opportunities. But if you are an employee who just has to get the job done, you may want to stick to something basic that will please the boss and not cause any headaches. And if your a volunteer, you may want to use this as a chance to increase your skills and do a good deed.
Make sure the needs of the business or organization are met when you build web page (http://www.buildyoursite.com/). Develop a brand identity and help potential clients and customers to find out who you are and what you do. An online brochure is a good way to start.
You're trying to enhance your brand or organization image. But this is very legitimate for some kinds of companies, especially local businesses or organizations that aren't trying to conduct national or international commerce. You want people to know who you are, what you do, where to find you, and how to contact you.
A good strategy is to provide product information that will improve local sales of your goods and services. Car sites are a good example. Car companies don't often sell their cars through the internet, but they guide people to local dealers. You can also sell advertising, but right now, there is more space than ads to fill it.
Though the industry is improving, internet advertising is rather under-priced. Sites that are portals for many other sites may be able to sell some advertising space, but this should not be a counted on form of revenue. Instead, view the revenue from advertisement space sales as a bonus.
Construct a web page and become an Internet direct seller of products or services. You want to engage in e-commerce and sell to a domestic or worldwide market. You will have a system for ordering one or more products, or maybe you will feature an in-depth online catalog. Your online service may offer delivery over the Internet, or it may be initiated online.
Build web page (http://www.buildyoursite.com/) and earn affiliate commissions for sales and leads generated through links on your web page. Savvy marketers are building micro sites designed to generate search engine traffic for a particular hot product or service. When a visitor clicks on one of their links, he is referred to an e-commerce site, and, if a sale results, the affiliate gets a commission. Perhaps a form on your site generates leads or subscriptions for another company.
There are a few critical places in building a web page (http://www.buildyoursite.com/) where you must make the right decision, or you'll have to repeat this task again and again until you get it right. The better you grasp these essential points, the better your web page will work and the happier camper you'll be.
As a website builder, make sure you know what the project can do for you. If you are the owner of a business, you want to maximize your business opportunities. But if you are an employee who just has to get the job done, you may want to stick to something basic that will please the boss and not cause any headaches. And if your a volunteer, you may want to use this as a chance to increase your skills and do a good deed.
Make sure the needs of the business or organization are met when you build web page (http://www.buildyoursite.com/). Develop a brand identity and help potential clients and customers to find out who you are and what you do. An online brochure is a good way to start.
You're trying to enhance your brand or organization image. But this is very legitimate for some kinds of companies, especially local businesses or organizations that aren't trying to conduct national or international commerce. You want people to know who you are, what you do, where to find you, and how to contact you.
A good strategy is to provide product information that will improve local sales of your goods and services. Car sites are a good example. Car companies don't often sell their cars through the internet, but they guide people to local dealers. You can also sell advertising, but right now, there is more space than ads to fill it.
Though the industry is improving, internet advertising is rather under-priced. Sites that are portals for many other sites may be able to sell some advertising space, but this should not be a counted on form of revenue. Instead, view the revenue from advertisement space sales as a bonus.
Construct a web page and become an Internet direct seller of products or services. You want to engage in e-commerce and sell to a domestic or worldwide market. You will have a system for ordering one or more products, or maybe you will feature an in-depth online catalog. Your online service may offer delivery over the Internet, or it may be initiated online.
Build web page (http://www.buildyoursite.com/) and earn affiliate commissions for sales and leads generated through links on your web page. Savvy marketers are building micro sites designed to generate search engine traffic for a particular hot product or service. When a visitor clicks on one of their links, he is referred to an e-commerce site, and, if a sale results, the affiliate gets a commission. Perhaps a form on your site generates leads or subscriptions for another company.
Build A Website : The Costs And Benefits
by: Tem Balanco
These days in a world ruled by technology, virtually anyone can build a website, but few have the skills to build a website that functions. Even though there are plenty of low cost tools and services out there, far too many web sites are virtually useless, gathering virtual dust on their virtual shelves.
You can design and build your website with a lot of effort. But that alone does not guarantee that your website will be a success. You have to give importance to factors that will encourage people to visit your website. You can market your website in many ways, to increase traffic to your website. However, online marketing is quite expensive.
When you are operating on a small budget it is essential that you build a website that is optimize for search engines. You will save a lot of advertising dollars by ensuring that all your web pages have quality keywords. Keywords are words or phrases that the world uses to find what they are looking for in the web.
If you want to make your web page appear live for the world to view, you simply need to research a hosting company with experience, register your domain name, create your account, build your personal site, and then publish it. It is a very simple process! The important part is finding a hosting company that provides you with a domain name (your personal website name) registration, site builder tools, and hosting.
Some site builder tools require you to be proficient in HTML (Hyper Tex Mark up Language). Otherwise look for site builder tool that does not require you to learn the language. To build a website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/) that works require upfront planning. After deciding on what niche you want to pursue, you will need to come up with a name for your website, build a keyword list, register your website name, sign up with a hosting company, and submit your website to the search engines. All this can end up costing you quite a bit.
In summary, building a Website that works is going to cost you. But, you have control over how much it costs you financial and emotionally. All you have to do is to figure out exactly what you want the website to do, identify the resources that you will need, establish a budget, then go build your site. It is that simple.
These days in a world ruled by technology, virtually anyone can build a website, but few have the skills to build a website that functions. Even though there are plenty of low cost tools and services out there, far too many web sites are virtually useless, gathering virtual dust on their virtual shelves.
You can design and build your website with a lot of effort. But that alone does not guarantee that your website will be a success. You have to give importance to factors that will encourage people to visit your website. You can market your website in many ways, to increase traffic to your website. However, online marketing is quite expensive.
When you are operating on a small budget it is essential that you build a website that is optimize for search engines. You will save a lot of advertising dollars by ensuring that all your web pages have quality keywords. Keywords are words or phrases that the world uses to find what they are looking for in the web.
If you want to make your web page appear live for the world to view, you simply need to research a hosting company with experience, register your domain name, create your account, build your personal site, and then publish it. It is a very simple process! The important part is finding a hosting company that provides you with a domain name (your personal website name) registration, site builder tools, and hosting.
Some site builder tools require you to be proficient in HTML (Hyper Tex Mark up Language). Otherwise look for site builder tool that does not require you to learn the language. To build a website (http://www.buildyoursite.com/) that works require upfront planning. After deciding on what niche you want to pursue, you will need to come up with a name for your website, build a keyword list, register your website name, sign up with a hosting company, and submit your website to the search engines. All this can end up costing you quite a bit.
In summary, building a Website that works is going to cost you. But, you have control over how much it costs you financial and emotionally. All you have to do is to figure out exactly what you want the website to do, identify the resources that you will need, establish a budget, then go build your site. It is that simple.
Sales Pages With Style - Create Quality Sales Pages With CSS
by: Elizabeth Adams
Sales pages, to be effective, must immediately catch the attention of even a casual web surfer. The sales message contained in the sales page needs to be both easy to read and understand. If the content-display styling is well-crafted, the sales message can be absorbed with just a rapid page scan. An interested reader will re-read the page for the details.
Sales copy provides the content which entices the reader to move deeper into the page towards the "Order Now" button.
The job of a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS), is to
* facilitate page navigation,
* improve readability, and
* call attention to important content.
There are lots of articles and ebooks available on the Web about "writing" profitable sales copy. You can easily find them with a quick search. This article focuses on "styling" the sales page and its content with CSS.
There are several advantages to using CSS for display styling. One of the best reasons is that it frees the copywriter from initial concerns about page formatting. Using very basic HTML code, such as that allowed for submissions to ezinearticles, the page content can be written with any basic text editor without concern for special content formatting.
Before any CSS styling has been applied, the sales page would not convert any prospects. At this stage, the HTML document contains all of the "content" that will be used. Text and images will typically be positioned on the page in roughly the order these elements will be used in the final sales page. CSS will make everything "pop" and "sizzle" when it is applied to the page.
After the sales copy is written, important page elements (identified through HTML tags) and content (information between HTML tags) can be identified and linked to the appropriate CSS formatting code, contained in separate CSS text file, for browser display. A previous article of mine, published at ezinearticles, explains how the HTML content gets linked to the CSS file. Briefly, the HTML-CSS link is done through the HTML "link" meta tag and content is identified through class and id tag attributes and through the use of the HTML span tag.
Content-specific styling includes special text formatting, such as highlighting and quotations, and the placement of items such as images and forms within the page.
I like to display the content in roughly the middle half of the monitor display and use a line length of about 60 characters. I also like to use a large enough font size to make blocks of text easy to read.
Because the page layout is so important, I use a fixed table design for the content: the content is placed in the center of the display and is framed in by wide right and left margins and narrow top and bottom margins. If the width of the browser page is narrowed by the reader, the right and left margins will narrow equally but the content area will remain the same width, and thus the content layout remains the way it was designed (i.e., not "liquid").
Essentially, my basic page layout consists of 4 nested "boxes:"
* HTML Box -- demarcated by html tags and contains all other boxes.
* BODY Box -- demarcated by body tags and contains the table and main-content boxes.
* Table Box -- demarcated by table tags and contains the main-content box.
* Main-Content Box -- demarcated by div tags and contains the sales-page content.
The HTML box includes the entire HTML document (except for the document-type declaration). The Body box contains everything visible to the reader. The Table box contains the sales page. The Main-Content box, as the name implies, includes all of the visible content of the sales page.
A sales page requires both global and content-specific CSS styling. Global styling includes such considerations as the page background, default font and line attributes, and page margins. Here is the global code I include in my CSS text file for sales pages:
body
{
font-size : 62.5%;
font-family : Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, SunSans-Regular, sans-serif;
color : black;
line-height : normal;
background-image : Specify the image URL here;
}
#main_content
{
font-size : 1.6em; /* this sets the default font size for the sales page and will display at 16px */
margin : 5%;
}
h1
{
font-size : 2.25em; /* will display at 36px */
}
h2
{
font-size : 1.5em; /* will display at 24px */
}
h3
{
font-size : 1.25em; /* will display at 20px */
}
h4
{
font-size : 1.125em; /* will display at 18px */
}
table.sales-letter
{
width : 60em;
margin-left : auto;
margin-right : auto;
table-layout : fixed;
background : #ffffff;
}
The body code above sets the default for the document's font size to 62.5% of 16px or 10px (px = pixels). This is too small for my sales page, and I adjust it in the #main_content section. The CSS body code also sets the font color to black, the line spacing to normal, the font family to sans-serif (with Verdana as the first choice), and specifies a blue background image used for the body background.
I use the #main_content code to set the actual base font size I use for the sales page text. All other font sizes in the sales page are sized relative to this base. Unless otherwise specified, all text in the sales page will be 1.6em or 16px. I use the margin attribute to provide content spacing between the content and borders around content.
The "Hn" tags set the basic header sizes and are calculated based on the font size I specified for the #main_content. As an example, since I will be using a default font size of 16px for the sales-page content, the H1 font size would be 2.25x16px or 36px. The "Hn" tags can later be modified with additional attributes, such as color and centering.
The CSS table attributes I use place the sales page in roughly the middle half of the full-size display page (1024 x 768 pixels). The width of the table, 600px, is just right for the line length I want to use. Since the table-layout attribute is "fixed," the table layout in the browser will be preserved at all times.
Since all of the font sizes are relative to the font size I set in the #main_content section, all sizes can be made larger or smaller by changing just the one value. For more information about the use of ems for sizing, I would suggest a visit to a blog post by Richard Rutter.
After the global formatting is applied page now has some nice-appearing structure.The content now lies between attractive borders and the content is contained on a "page" with adequate margins and on a background of choice.
Below are 12 additional tips, including the CSS code, you can use to stylize specific elements and text in your sales pages.
(1) I want my headline to be big, bold, red, and centered. Here is the CSS code I use:
h1.headline
{
line-height : 1.5;
color : #cc0000;
text-align : center;
}
(2) I use a smaller, blue, bold, and centered sub-headline.
h2.subheadline
{
line-height : 1.5;
color : #1b356e;
text-align : center;
}
(3) I use a small font size for the spider text and copyright. I position the spider text at the top of the page for the benefit of search engines.
#spidertext, #copyright
{
font-size : 1.2em;
}
(4) I use CSS code to position my photo so that it "floats" to the right and any text to the left flows around the photo.
.photo
{
float : right;
display : inline;
}
(5) If you want to center section headings and color the text red or blue, here is usable code:
h3.red
{
line-height : 1.5;
color : #cc0000;
text-align : center;
}
h4.blue
{
line-height : 1.5;
color : #1b356e;
text-align : center;
}
(6) I change the font type for quotations. Using Courier New sets the quotes apart from normal body text.
.quote
{
font-family : "Courier New", Courier, monospace;
}
(7) I use an unnumbered list for my benefits list. The list can be customized to use a custom bullet and extra space between list elements. The CSS code to accomplish my custom list formatting is as follows:
li
{
list-style-position: inside;
list-style-image: Specify the image URL here;
list-style-type: none;
margin-bottom: 1em
}
(8) You can highlight important text with a yellow background.
.highlight
{
background-color : yellow;
}
(9) You can emphasize text by making it bold.
.bold
{
font-weight : bold;
}
.boldred
{
font-weight : bold;
color : #cc0000;
}
.boldblue
{
font-weight : bold;
color : #0000ff;
}
(10) I like to make sales-page testimonials special by framing them and using a pastel background for the text.
.testimonial
{
display : block;
margin-left : auto;
margin-right : auto;
background : #fffacc;
padding : 1em;
border : double;
border-width : thick;
border-color : #999999;
}
(11) The purchase form is a very important component of the sales page. I use a red-dashed border for the form.
.purchase-form
{
padding : 1.5em;
border : dashed;
border-width :medium;
border-color : #FF0000 ;
background : #fffac6;
}
(12) If you use an image and associate a link with it, you will want to turn off the border or you will get a distracting blue border around the image.
a img
{
border : 0;
}
After all CSS styling has been applied, the sales page now has some "snap" and "pop". The colorful headline immediately catches the attention of even a casual web surfer. The sales message contained in the sales page is now easy to read and much easier to understand. The well-crafted content-display makes it possible for the sales message to be absorbed with just a rapid page scan. After a preliminary scan, an interested reader will more than likely re-read the page for the details.
To get a ZIP file of the HTML and CSS files mentioned in this article and that you can use for practice or for your own templates, please visit http://www.elizabethadamsdirect.com A full-color PDF of the article is also available for download.
Sample web pages showing the template sales page without CSS applied, with just global CSS applied, and with all CSS applied can be seen at http://www.elizabethadamsdirect.com/template/exhibits.html
To look at a "real" sales page that used the CSS techniques discussed in this article, you can visit http://www.elizabethadamsdirect.com/greatheadlines
Sales pages, to be effective, must immediately catch the attention of even a casual web surfer. The sales message contained in the sales page needs to be both easy to read and understand. If the content-display styling is well-crafted, the sales message can be absorbed with just a rapid page scan. An interested reader will re-read the page for the details.
Sales copy provides the content which entices the reader to move deeper into the page towards the "Order Now" button.
The job of a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS), is to
* facilitate page navigation,
* improve readability, and
* call attention to important content.
There are lots of articles and ebooks available on the Web about "writing" profitable sales copy. You can easily find them with a quick search. This article focuses on "styling" the sales page and its content with CSS.
There are several advantages to using CSS for display styling. One of the best reasons is that it frees the copywriter from initial concerns about page formatting. Using very basic HTML code, such as that allowed for submissions to ezinearticles, the page content can be written with any basic text editor without concern for special content formatting.
Before any CSS styling has been applied, the sales page would not convert any prospects. At this stage, the HTML document contains all of the "content" that will be used. Text and images will typically be positioned on the page in roughly the order these elements will be used in the final sales page. CSS will make everything "pop" and "sizzle" when it is applied to the page.
After the sales copy is written, important page elements (identified through HTML tags) and content (information between HTML tags) can be identified and linked to the appropriate CSS formatting code, contained in separate CSS text file, for browser display. A previous article of mine, published at ezinearticles, explains how the HTML content gets linked to the CSS file. Briefly, the HTML-CSS link is done through the HTML "link" meta tag and content is identified through class and id tag attributes and through the use of the HTML span tag.
Content-specific styling includes special text formatting, such as highlighting and quotations, and the placement of items such as images and forms within the page.
I like to display the content in roughly the middle half of the monitor display and use a line length of about 60 characters. I also like to use a large enough font size to make blocks of text easy to read.
Because the page layout is so important, I use a fixed table design for the content: the content is placed in the center of the display and is framed in by wide right and left margins and narrow top and bottom margins. If the width of the browser page is narrowed by the reader, the right and left margins will narrow equally but the content area will remain the same width, and thus the content layout remains the way it was designed (i.e., not "liquid").
Essentially, my basic page layout consists of 4 nested "boxes:"
* HTML Box -- demarcated by html tags and contains all other boxes.
* BODY Box -- demarcated by body tags and contains the table and main-content boxes.
* Table Box -- demarcated by table tags and contains the main-content box.
* Main-Content Box -- demarcated by div tags and contains the sales-page content.
The HTML box includes the entire HTML document (except for the document-type declaration). The Body box contains everything visible to the reader. The Table box contains the sales page. The Main-Content box, as the name implies, includes all of the visible content of the sales page.
A sales page requires both global and content-specific CSS styling. Global styling includes such considerations as the page background, default font and line attributes, and page margins. Here is the global code I include in my CSS text file for sales pages:
body
{
font-size : 62.5%;
font-family : Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, SunSans-Regular, sans-serif;
color : black;
line-height : normal;
background-image : Specify the image URL here;
}
#main_content
{
font-size : 1.6em; /* this sets the default font size for the sales page and will display at 16px */
margin : 5%;
}
h1
{
font-size : 2.25em; /* will display at 36px */
}
h2
{
font-size : 1.5em; /* will display at 24px */
}
h3
{
font-size : 1.25em; /* will display at 20px */
}
h4
{
font-size : 1.125em; /* will display at 18px */
}
table.sales-letter
{
width : 60em;
margin-left : auto;
margin-right : auto;
table-layout : fixed;
background : #ffffff;
}
The body code above sets the default for the document's font size to 62.5% of 16px or 10px (px = pixels). This is too small for my sales page, and I adjust it in the #main_content section. The CSS body code also sets the font color to black, the line spacing to normal, the font family to sans-serif (with Verdana as the first choice), and specifies a blue background image used for the body background.
I use the #main_content code to set the actual base font size I use for the sales page text. All other font sizes in the sales page are sized relative to this base. Unless otherwise specified, all text in the sales page will be 1.6em or 16px. I use the margin attribute to provide content spacing between the content and borders around content.
The "Hn" tags set the basic header sizes and are calculated based on the font size I specified for the #main_content. As an example, since I will be using a default font size of 16px for the sales-page content, the H1 font size would be 2.25x16px or 36px. The "Hn" tags can later be modified with additional attributes, such as color and centering.
The CSS table attributes I use place the sales page in roughly the middle half of the full-size display page (1024 x 768 pixels). The width of the table, 600px, is just right for the line length I want to use. Since the table-layout attribute is "fixed," the table layout in the browser will be preserved at all times.
Since all of the font sizes are relative to the font size I set in the #main_content section, all sizes can be made larger or smaller by changing just the one value. For more information about the use of ems for sizing, I would suggest a visit to a blog post by Richard Rutter.
After the global formatting is applied page now has some nice-appearing structure.The content now lies between attractive borders and the content is contained on a "page" with adequate margins and on a background of choice.
Below are 12 additional tips, including the CSS code, you can use to stylize specific elements and text in your sales pages.
(1) I want my headline to be big, bold, red, and centered. Here is the CSS code I use:
h1.headline
{
line-height : 1.5;
color : #cc0000;
text-align : center;
}
(2) I use a smaller, blue, bold, and centered sub-headline.
h2.subheadline
{
line-height : 1.5;
color : #1b356e;
text-align : center;
}
(3) I use a small font size for the spider text and copyright. I position the spider text at the top of the page for the benefit of search engines.
#spidertext, #copyright
{
font-size : 1.2em;
}
(4) I use CSS code to position my photo so that it "floats" to the right and any text to the left flows around the photo.
.photo
{
float : right;
display : inline;
}
(5) If you want to center section headings and color the text red or blue, here is usable code:
h3.red
{
line-height : 1.5;
color : #cc0000;
text-align : center;
}
h4.blue
{
line-height : 1.5;
color : #1b356e;
text-align : center;
}
(6) I change the font type for quotations. Using Courier New sets the quotes apart from normal body text.
.quote
{
font-family : "Courier New", Courier, monospace;
}
(7) I use an unnumbered list for my benefits list. The list can be customized to use a custom bullet and extra space between list elements. The CSS code to accomplish my custom list formatting is as follows:
li
{
list-style-position: inside;
list-style-image: Specify the image URL here;
list-style-type: none;
margin-bottom: 1em
}
(8) You can highlight important text with a yellow background.
.highlight
{
background-color : yellow;
}
(9) You can emphasize text by making it bold.
.bold
{
font-weight : bold;
}
.boldred
{
font-weight : bold;
color : #cc0000;
}
.boldblue
{
font-weight : bold;
color : #0000ff;
}
(10) I like to make sales-page testimonials special by framing them and using a pastel background for the text.
.testimonial
{
display : block;
margin-left : auto;
margin-right : auto;
background : #fffacc;
padding : 1em;
border : double;
border-width : thick;
border-color : #999999;
}
(11) The purchase form is a very important component of the sales page. I use a red-dashed border for the form.
.purchase-form
{
padding : 1.5em;
border : dashed;
border-width :medium;
border-color : #FF0000 ;
background : #fffac6;
}
(12) If you use an image and associate a link with it, you will want to turn off the border or you will get a distracting blue border around the image.
a img
{
border : 0;
}
After all CSS styling has been applied, the sales page now has some "snap" and "pop". The colorful headline immediately catches the attention of even a casual web surfer. The sales message contained in the sales page is now easy to read and much easier to understand. The well-crafted content-display makes it possible for the sales message to be absorbed with just a rapid page scan. After a preliminary scan, an interested reader will more than likely re-read the page for the details.
To get a ZIP file of the HTML and CSS files mentioned in this article and that you can use for practice or for your own templates, please visit http://www.elizabethadamsdirect.com A full-color PDF of the article is also available for download.
Sample web pages showing the template sales page without CSS applied, with just global CSS applied, and with all CSS applied can be seen at http://www.elizabethadamsdirect.com/template/exhibits.html
To look at a "real" sales page that used the CSS techniques discussed in this article, you can visit http://www.elizabethadamsdirect.com/greatheadlines
Writing Articles With Style - Create Quality Articles With CSS
by: Elizabeth Adams
Writing your quality articles using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) will insure that your articles will be both easy to read and aesthetically pleasing to the viewer.
A CSS style sheet allows the HTML code for your articles to be cleaner, table-less, easily customizable, and "liquid."
Removing the display attributes of your articles from the HTML code allows you to concentrate on using the HTML for organizing your document's content.
When you use CSS, a new approach is possible to writing your articles for the Web:
* First, you write your article in a very basic HTML document, using simple HTML code. At this stage, use only the most common HTML tags. Focus on organizing your article's content first.
* Next, you identify parts of your document for special display formatting.
* Finally, you define the formatting in the CSS file.
Once you work through this process, you can reuse both the HTML document and the CSS file as templates for your future, quality articles.
This article will provide the tips, tricks, and sample code to give you a head start in creating your own quality articles and templates using CSS. If this all seems complex and intimidating at first, don't despair--read on. I will explain the basic HTML and CSS terminology throughout the article.
THE BASIC HTML DOCUMENT
The basic HTML document is devided into several sections: html, head, and body.
Tags are used to demarcate document sections, or "elements." Content lies between the tags. For example, the article you are now reading lies between the body tags of an html document.
Tags usually exist in pairs, a start tag and and end tag. The start tag is surrounded by less-than and greater-than angle brackets. An end tag is bracketed with the same symbols but the first character of the tag is a forward slash (/). For example, HTML code for a paragraph element would include the start and end "p" tags with the content sandwiched between the two.
The basic tag pairs found in web pages are:
* html -- These tags tell a browser that this is an HTML document and define the start and end of the document.
* head -- The head element can contain information about the document. Although the browser does not present the information to a viewer, the information can be "seen" and used by search engines.
* title -- The title tags define the title element that will be used by a browser for the document's title.
* body -- The document's content is placed between the body tags.
In HTML 4.01, not all tags exist in pairs. The "!DOCTYPE" and "meta" tags do not use an end tag, for instance.
The first line of code in the basic document is the Document Type Definition (DTD). The !DOCTYPE tag tells the browser which HTML or XHTML specification the document uses. HTML 4.01 specifies three document types: Strict, Transitional, and Frameset.
The first meta tag in the basic HTML document provides information about how the page-content characters are encoded so that a browser can interpret them correctly.
If you want your articles to be widely seen on the Internet, you need to be particularly interested in the meta tags for keywords and description. These can be seen and used by search engines.
Use the "keyword name" and its related "content" in a meta tag to list your keywords or keyword phrases.
Keywords ought to be appropriate for the article content. They should also reflect what internet surfers actually type into a search engine's query box when hunting for the information you are offering.
Keyword research is a study in itself. Freeware is available on the Internet that can help you determine the best keywords to use in your article and keyword list. Keywords or keyword phrases within the meta tag need to be separated from each other with a comma.
Although not all search engines will utilize the description meta tag for their search results, you still need to include a good description for those that do.
If you had just a few characters to describe your article, or to entice a surfer to select yours from the results of a search, what would you write? What you would write is what should go into the description.
USING CASCADING STYLE SHEETS (CSS)
I have already suggested several reasons why today's preferred method of creating web pages is to separate a page's content from it's display properties. It's time for a demonstration of how this can be accomplished.
In the past, HTML tags included attributes to define how the content was to be displayed by a browser.
Today, CSS is used to concentrate these attributes in a single, separate file. Simple HTML code specifies "what" content is to be displayed; the CSS code defines "how" the content is to be displayed.
Before CSS can be used to format an HTML document, the name and location of the CSS file must be known to the browser. The browser gets this information through the HTML "link" tag that is coded between the head tags.
Once the CSS file is linked, the browser will check the CSS file for display attributes. For example, if the browser encounters an "h1" tag in the HTML code, it will check the CSS file for "h1" formatting. Here is the "h1" formatting information I included in the article.css file I use for my article titles:
h1
{
color:maroon;
text-align:center
}
When a browser encounters an "h1" tag in the HTML code, it would display the title centered and maroon.
SELECTING CONTENT FOR FORMATTING
Content formatting can be applied to an HTML document only after the content to be formatted has been identified to the browser. An easy way to do this is to place a "class" or "id" attribute within a start tag. The same class name can be used many times on a web page; each id name should be used just once per page.
Once content is identified, the class or id name can be referred to in the CSS file and the browser will apply any formatting attributes found there.
Selections Using Class Names
As an example of using the class name, I used the following CSS for in an article about writing ad headlines. In the HTML code, I used divisions tags with a class name of "headline" to demarcate the headline text. I added the following code to the CSS file:
.headline
{
font-size: 24px;
color: red;
font-weight:bold;
text-align:center
}
In the CSS file, I specified the font-size, color, font-weight, and text-align attributes. The class name was added to the CSS file by preceeding the name with a period. I used a semicolon to separate attributes in the list. The HTML and CSS code combine to produce a bold, 24px, red headline centered in the HTML page.
It should be noted that there are some basic HTML tags that are their own class names and do not require a preceding period in the CSS file. These include p, h, body, li, and others. That being said, these tags can be modified by appending an additional class name to them. For example, if I wanted to make the next paragraph blue, I could add a "blue" class attribute to the opening HTML "p" tag and then add this code to the CSS file:
p.blue
{
color:#0000FF
}
This would be a blue paragraph if this HTML were displayed in color.
Selections Using ID Names
The CSS syntax for an ID is a little different from that used for a class. In the CSS file, ID names are proceeded with a pound sign (#). The example below "floats" my 288px by 59px logo image to the left of the following paragraph: the text flows around the image. I added an ID attribute with a name of "logo" to the HTML "div" start tag I used to demarcate the image information. Here is the CSS code I used:
#logo
{
float:left
}
The HTML and CSS code would combine to produce the following results:
~~~LOGO WOULD FLOAT HERE~~ Text here would flow around the logo.
Selections Using Span Tags
If you want to format just a bit of content, you can use span tags
In the article.css file, I defined a background-color attribute for a "highlight" class that will put a yellow background behind selected text. For the next paragraph, I used span tags to bracket the text, "separate attributes." Here is the CSS code:
.highlight
{
background-color:yellow
}
As a result, and if this were in color, the phrase "separate attributes" would be highlighted with a yellow background.
LOOKS AND LAYOUT
A careful selection of the "global" characteristics used for the body element of your web page will insure that your articles will be both easy to read and aesthetically pleasing to the viewer. These characteristics include font, font color, page background color, and page margins.
I use the "body" code in the CSS file to define the default body display attributes. Here is the CSS body code from the article.css file:
body
{
background: #fffef2;
color: black;
line-height: normal;
margin: 3% 25% 3% 25%;
}
Fonts
In the CSS body code, I specify the font family I want to use. The first font listed, Verdana, will be used by a browser if it exists on a viewer's PC. If Verdana is not available, the other fonts will be checked, in order. If none of the specific fonts are available, the browser will default to any available sans-serif font.
If you use a commonly available font/font-family for your articles, the chances are good that a reader will see the article as expected. Otherwise, your article might not look the way it should.
Verdana was designed for easy readability on computer monitors and, for this reason, is my font of choice. Since Verdana is commonly available on PCs, using this as the default font will also increase the likelihood that my article text will be displayed as I intended.
Page Background
I set the background color to a light color, the font color to black, and the line height, or spacing between lines, to normal. The background color I like to use (#fffef2) shows colored text and graphics to good advantage.
Margins
I like to adjust the article on my page to show content in roughly the middle half of the page. I think it is easier for the eye to process than content that goes edge to edge. I use the CSS margin attribute to adjust this. The margin attribute defines the top, right, bottom, and left margins respectively (margin: top right bottom left).
In the CSS body code above, I set the left and right margins to 25% of the available display width. Using 25% places about 60 characters per line of text on my 1024x768 pixel full-screen display. I also set a small 3% margin above and below the content.
Lists
If you use a list in your article, you can use the CSS file to customize the way your list looks. Two important considerations of list design are the list bullet and the spacing between list elements. The example below shows how to change the bullet graphic and element spacing of an unordered list:
li
{
list-style-position: inside;
list-style-image: url
(http://www.elizabethadamsdirect.com/articles/images/small_blob.gif);
list-style-type: none;
margin-bottom: 1em
}
I added two list attributes to customize the list:
1. list-style-image - used to specify the URL to a bullet image (not shown below), and
2. margin-bottom - used to provide some extra space between list items.
For a complete description of possible list attributes--as well as great tutorials on using HTML and CSS--you can visit http://www.w3schools.com
Entity Names
Some characters have special meaning in HTML documents. When you want to use these characters in your text, you can use their "entity names" to prevent browsers from misinterpreting them for HTML code. I used entity names extensively for my web version of this article to display many symbols, particularly in the code samples.
Most commonly, I use entity names in my HTML code for quote marks. By doing this, I get the look and feel I want in my text when I use quotes. For example, when I want to use distinctly different left and right quote-marks in my web-based titles and headlines, I use specific entity names to do so.
Careful attention to the entity names you use can add "that extra touch of class" to your articles.
For HTML 4.01, there are entity names for both ASCII and extended characters and symbols. I use an entity name to insert a copyright symbol at the bottom of all of my web pages. You can find a complete list of entity names at w3schools.
I use Dreamweaver 8 for my HTML and CSS editing. With Dreamweaver, I can validate my code as I write it. I have optioned the validator to warn me when entity name substitution might be appropriate.
Validating Your HTML and CSS Code
I like to write valid HTML code for the "!DOCTYPE" version I use. If you click on the w3 validation icon at the bottom of my full-color, web-site version of this article, you will see that the HTML code for the article is valid and error free. You can use the validator accessible through w3schools to check your code, too.
CONCLUSIONS
When you separate your article's content from the code browsers use to display your article, you can focus on using simple, basic HTML code to organize your content. A Cascading Style Sheets(CSS) can accomplish the separation.
A CSS style sheet allows the HTML code for your articles to be cleaner, table-less, easily customizable, and "liquid."
You can look at one of my recently published articles to see the results of using the techniques outlined in this article. The article is "Profitable Ads: How to Write Ads that Pull."
Sincerely Yours,
Elizabeth Adams
Writing your quality articles using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) will insure that your articles will be both easy to read and aesthetically pleasing to the viewer.
A CSS style sheet allows the HTML code for your articles to be cleaner, table-less, easily customizable, and "liquid."
Removing the display attributes of your articles from the HTML code allows you to concentrate on using the HTML for organizing your document's content.
When you use CSS, a new approach is possible to writing your articles for the Web:
* First, you write your article in a very basic HTML document, using simple HTML code. At this stage, use only the most common HTML tags. Focus on organizing your article's content first.
* Next, you identify parts of your document for special display formatting.
* Finally, you define the formatting in the CSS file.
Once you work through this process, you can reuse both the HTML document and the CSS file as templates for your future, quality articles.
This article will provide the tips, tricks, and sample code to give you a head start in creating your own quality articles and templates using CSS. If this all seems complex and intimidating at first, don't despair--read on. I will explain the basic HTML and CSS terminology throughout the article.
THE BASIC HTML DOCUMENT
The basic HTML document is devided into several sections: html, head, and body.
Tags are used to demarcate document sections, or "elements." Content lies between the tags. For example, the article you are now reading lies between the body tags of an html document.
Tags usually exist in pairs, a start tag and and end tag. The start tag is surrounded by less-than and greater-than angle brackets. An end tag is bracketed with the same symbols but the first character of the tag is a forward slash (/). For example, HTML code for a paragraph element would include the start and end "p" tags with the content sandwiched between the two.
The basic tag pairs found in web pages are:
* html -- These tags tell a browser that this is an HTML document and define the start and end of the document.
* head -- The head element can contain information about the document. Although the browser does not present the information to a viewer, the information can be "seen" and used by search engines.
* title -- The title tags define the title element that will be used by a browser for the document's title.
* body -- The document's content is placed between the body tags.
In HTML 4.01, not all tags exist in pairs. The "!DOCTYPE" and "meta" tags do not use an end tag, for instance.
The first line of code in the basic document is the Document Type Definition (DTD). The !DOCTYPE tag tells the browser which HTML or XHTML specification the document uses. HTML 4.01 specifies three document types: Strict, Transitional, and Frameset.
The first meta tag in the basic HTML document provides information about how the page-content characters are encoded so that a browser can interpret them correctly.
If you want your articles to be widely seen on the Internet, you need to be particularly interested in the meta tags for keywords and description. These can be seen and used by search engines.
Use the "keyword name" and its related "content" in a meta tag to list your keywords or keyword phrases.
Keywords ought to be appropriate for the article content. They should also reflect what internet surfers actually type into a search engine's query box when hunting for the information you are offering.
Keyword research is a study in itself. Freeware is available on the Internet that can help you determine the best keywords to use in your article and keyword list. Keywords or keyword phrases within the meta tag need to be separated from each other with a comma.
Although not all search engines will utilize the description meta tag for their search results, you still need to include a good description for those that do.
If you had just a few characters to describe your article, or to entice a surfer to select yours from the results of a search, what would you write? What you would write is what should go into the description.
USING CASCADING STYLE SHEETS (CSS)
I have already suggested several reasons why today's preferred method of creating web pages is to separate a page's content from it's display properties. It's time for a demonstration of how this can be accomplished.
In the past, HTML tags included attributes to define how the content was to be displayed by a browser.
Today, CSS is used to concentrate these attributes in a single, separate file. Simple HTML code specifies "what" content is to be displayed; the CSS code defines "how" the content is to be displayed.
Before CSS can be used to format an HTML document, the name and location of the CSS file must be known to the browser. The browser gets this information through the HTML "link" tag that is coded between the head tags.
Once the CSS file is linked, the browser will check the CSS file for display attributes. For example, if the browser encounters an "h1" tag in the HTML code, it will check the CSS file for "h1" formatting. Here is the "h1" formatting information I included in the article.css file I use for my article titles:
h1
{
color:maroon;
text-align:center
}
When a browser encounters an "h1" tag in the HTML code, it would display the title centered and maroon.
SELECTING CONTENT FOR FORMATTING
Content formatting can be applied to an HTML document only after the content to be formatted has been identified to the browser. An easy way to do this is to place a "class" or "id" attribute within a start tag. The same class name can be used many times on a web page; each id name should be used just once per page.
Once content is identified, the class or id name can be referred to in the CSS file and the browser will apply any formatting attributes found there.
Selections Using Class Names
As an example of using the class name, I used the following CSS for in an article about writing ad headlines. In the HTML code, I used divisions tags with a class name of "headline" to demarcate the headline text. I added the following code to the CSS file:
.headline
{
font-size: 24px;
color: red;
font-weight:bold;
text-align:center
}
In the CSS file, I specified the font-size, color, font-weight, and text-align attributes. The class name was added to the CSS file by preceeding the name with a period. I used a semicolon to separate attributes in the list. The HTML and CSS code combine to produce a bold, 24px, red headline centered in the HTML page.
It should be noted that there are some basic HTML tags that are their own class names and do not require a preceding period in the CSS file. These include p, h, body, li, and others. That being said, these tags can be modified by appending an additional class name to them. For example, if I wanted to make the next paragraph blue, I could add a "blue" class attribute to the opening HTML "p" tag and then add this code to the CSS file:
p.blue
{
color:#0000FF
}
This would be a blue paragraph if this HTML were displayed in color.
Selections Using ID Names
The CSS syntax for an ID is a little different from that used for a class. In the CSS file, ID names are proceeded with a pound sign (#). The example below "floats" my 288px by 59px logo image to the left of the following paragraph: the text flows around the image. I added an ID attribute with a name of "logo" to the HTML "div" start tag I used to demarcate the image information. Here is the CSS code I used:
#logo
{
float:left
}
The HTML and CSS code would combine to produce the following results:
~~~LOGO WOULD FLOAT HERE~~ Text here would flow around the logo.
Selections Using Span Tags
If you want to format just a bit of content, you can use span tags
In the article.css file, I defined a background-color attribute for a "highlight" class that will put a yellow background behind selected text. For the next paragraph, I used span tags to bracket the text, "separate attributes." Here is the CSS code:
.highlight
{
background-color:yellow
}
As a result, and if this were in color, the phrase "separate attributes" would be highlighted with a yellow background.
LOOKS AND LAYOUT
A careful selection of the "global" characteristics used for the body element of your web page will insure that your articles will be both easy to read and aesthetically pleasing to the viewer. These characteristics include font, font color, page background color, and page margins.
I use the "body" code in the CSS file to define the default body display attributes. Here is the CSS body code from the article.css file:
body
{
background: #fffef2;
color: black;
line-height: normal;
margin: 3% 25% 3% 25%;
}
Fonts
In the CSS body code, I specify the font family I want to use. The first font listed, Verdana, will be used by a browser if it exists on a viewer's PC. If Verdana is not available, the other fonts will be checked, in order. If none of the specific fonts are available, the browser will default to any available sans-serif font.
If you use a commonly available font/font-family for your articles, the chances are good that a reader will see the article as expected. Otherwise, your article might not look the way it should.
Verdana was designed for easy readability on computer monitors and, for this reason, is my font of choice. Since Verdana is commonly available on PCs, using this as the default font will also increase the likelihood that my article text will be displayed as I intended.
Page Background
I set the background color to a light color, the font color to black, and the line height, or spacing between lines, to normal. The background color I like to use (#fffef2) shows colored text and graphics to good advantage.
Margins
I like to adjust the article on my page to show content in roughly the middle half of the page. I think it is easier for the eye to process than content that goes edge to edge. I use the CSS margin attribute to adjust this. The margin attribute defines the top, right, bottom, and left margins respectively (margin: top right bottom left).
In the CSS body code above, I set the left and right margins to 25% of the available display width. Using 25% places about 60 characters per line of text on my 1024x768 pixel full-screen display. I also set a small 3% margin above and below the content.
Lists
If you use a list in your article, you can use the CSS file to customize the way your list looks. Two important considerations of list design are the list bullet and the spacing between list elements. The example below shows how to change the bullet graphic and element spacing of an unordered list:
li
{
list-style-position: inside;
list-style-image: url
(http://www.elizabethadamsdirect.com/articles/images/small_blob.gif);
list-style-type: none;
margin-bottom: 1em
}
I added two list attributes to customize the list:
1. list-style-image - used to specify the URL to a bullet image (not shown below), and
2. margin-bottom - used to provide some extra space between list items.
For a complete description of possible list attributes--as well as great tutorials on using HTML and CSS--you can visit http://www.w3schools.com
Entity Names
Some characters have special meaning in HTML documents. When you want to use these characters in your text, you can use their "entity names" to prevent browsers from misinterpreting them for HTML code. I used entity names extensively for my web version of this article to display many symbols, particularly in the code samples.
Most commonly, I use entity names in my HTML code for quote marks. By doing this, I get the look and feel I want in my text when I use quotes. For example, when I want to use distinctly different left and right quote-marks in my web-based titles and headlines, I use specific entity names to do so.
Careful attention to the entity names you use can add "that extra touch of class" to your articles.
For HTML 4.01, there are entity names for both ASCII and extended characters and symbols. I use an entity name to insert a copyright symbol at the bottom of all of my web pages. You can find a complete list of entity names at w3schools.
I use Dreamweaver 8 for my HTML and CSS editing. With Dreamweaver, I can validate my code as I write it. I have optioned the validator to warn me when entity name substitution might be appropriate.
Validating Your HTML and CSS Code
I like to write valid HTML code for the "!DOCTYPE" version I use. If you click on the w3 validation icon at the bottom of my full-color, web-site version of this article, you will see that the HTML code for the article is valid and error free. You can use the validator accessible through w3schools to check your code, too.
CONCLUSIONS
When you separate your article's content from the code browsers use to display your article, you can focus on using simple, basic HTML code to organize your content. A Cascading Style Sheets(CSS) can accomplish the separation.
A CSS style sheet allows the HTML code for your articles to be cleaner, table-less, easily customizable, and "liquid."
You can look at one of my recently published articles to see the results of using the techniques outlined in this article. The article is "Profitable Ads: How to Write Ads that Pull."
Sincerely Yours,
Elizabeth Adams
What a Website Needs to Succeed!
by: Jim Shutes
A Proven Formula for All Websites
Every business needs a website. It is an absolute MUST! Nowadays, it’s like not being in the phone book. The Internet is a digitally-indexed database that is searchable. Whenever anyone wants to know more about anything, they look it up on the Internet, in their own time, 24/7, without the pressure of a sales person. With search engines, such as Google.com or Yahoo.com, the information they are looking for can be found in seconds.
If you aren’t where people are looking, you CAN’T get the sale.
Even if you aren’t planning on selling anything online, you still need to have an Internet presence, telling your story and being a 24/7 sales person for you. The Internet is information. So, even if you just have an informational website, people can find out more about you, your company, what you have to offer, and why they should choose you over your competition. A website gives you the opportunity to get all of that across to your potential customer.
Following, are proven components of a website and why you will need them in yours.
A Home Page is the window into your website and should be short, sweat, and to the point. Statistically, it has been proven that you get about 3 seconds, once a person arrives at your website, to get them interested enough to click for more information. If you can get them to click, then you have them! If you try to give them all of the information at once, then you will lose them.
Some websites try to give you their inventory on the home page, or write a story that scrolls forever. This is not good. A home page should not scroll. This is a big “No No”. When people get to a home page and see paragraphs, trust me, they go on to the next website. It needs graphics that represent the services, happy pictures, happy customers, and a quick sales pitch. Remember, people are lazy and won’t read large amounts of text, unless they have a need to. And included on the home page, needs to be quickly gotten across, why someone should use you over your competitor.
The About Us page sometimes gets left off, in favor of making the home page the About Us page. You will want to have an About Us page that explains in detail what you have to offer, your history, your mission statement, and a good reason that a potential customer should use buy from you over your competitor. This can be seen as the detailed version of the home page. However, it is a mistake to forgo the About Us page in exchange for a detailed home page. Again, this will just push people away who do not want to read all of the details to find out who you are and what you have to offer. This information should be available for those who wish to see more information after they are intrigued by the home page.
Design rules. For uniformity and good design, websites (any marketing piece) should have rules for graphic elements and text. For example, all headings should be the same size/style/color, etc. All subheads should have their own size/style/color, etc. This helps the eye make sense of what it is looking at. Guide your visitor with well-placed graphics and text.
Make sure that your website has good navigation, with buttons/links for all main sections of your website. And be sure to keep these navigation buttons/links visible on ANY page. There is nothing more frustrating than to not be able to find your way while browsing a website. People will leave before becoming too frustrated. Don’t let this happen on your website!
The constant, flashing email (or other) button/advertisement is a "No No" these days. In the old days, flashing and blinking graphics were used. As websites became more graphically sophisticated, these types of elements were not used any more. It can be annoying to see something flashing just off your vision, when you are trying to read the web page.
Text links at the bottom are rarely used any more. They were implemented back in the day of the text-based websites, when they were just starting out. This was for the dial-up users who had the option to turn off graphics for faster web page loading. When this happened, there were no links for navigation, unless a webmaster placed text links at the bottom. Nowadays, most people have broadband connections, and this just isn't necessary any more.
The biggest problem I see with websites these days is that a person has to read quite a bit to see what, exactly, a website is selling. When people show up at your website, you get about 3 seconds to peak their interest. Get it across very quickly, with icons/graphics/bullet points that are easy to understand. Tell them why they should choose you over your competition. And then tell them where to go to get started.
Another very important element is testimonials. More important than telling them why a potential customer should use your services over your competitions’, is a customer of yours saying the same thing. Not only is a testimonial someone who used your services, but they can say "how" you were able to help them. This gives new potential customers ideas on how your services will help “them”. Testimonials are also sales pitches from your happy customers, people just like them. They are people who were in the same position as they are right now and they got through it, so they can too. They also build credibility. When you are endorsed by other people, you have credibility and that you can do what you say you can do. And even though they may be saying the same thing that you are saying, it is coming from someone just like them, and not someone who is trying to sell them anything. They have nothing to gain by saying this. You do. So they need to hear from them. You absolutely MUST have endorsements for your business; otherwise, you are just blowing your own horn!
The next best thing to a testimonial page is an FAQ page. An FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page answers questions for your company 24/7, when you can't be at the phone to answer, and for people who would rather look over your information than speak to someone who might try to sell them something. FAQs also help to give scenarios of how they can be helped, by answering questions that other potential customers have asked, and they might not have thought of themselves. This gets them thinking and gives them answers in a risk-free environment. It is VERY important to have an FAQ working for you 24/7. It's like having a free sales person working for you around the clock, fielding all questions that might come up! It's a MUST-have for ANY website!
Your website should also have a clear "call to action". A lot of websites say that “we are here and we do this”, but they don't tell them how to get started, or tell them where to go to get started right now... no call to action. Now that they have the information, now what? People are like sheep. They must be led. You must lead them to the next level; otherwise, they probably won't get there. You should have calls to action by all services, and on your home page. You should sprinkle testimonials throughout, as well, leading them back to the full testimonials and then to the call to action, which should be placed on the testimonials page, as well. You could offer a FREE Consultation by calling right now… or click HERE now to email us 24/7 for a FREE Consultation… something that tells them where to go from here and a reason to get started right now and how.
There also needs to be graphics to help tell the story; high-end icons that help draw the eye to the item of interest, to get them to read it. Having a text-only page usually does not get read. People are lazy and will not usually read paragraphs of information in hopes of getting the information they are looking for. They would have to first be extremely interested before reading the “fine print”. And to get them interested, it should be broken up with graphics that represent each section. They will see the related graphic first, and then move to that area if interested. But to give them a page of information usually doesn't work.
You also need meta tags. This is very important to search engines. These are hidden key words and phrases that describe what you offer, but also your location, etc. Search engines rely heavily on key words and phrases in order to give your website as a result in a search done for your type of business. In fact, it is also good to have misspelled keywords that people might type in order to find you. Obviously, you won’t want to have misspelled words or phrases on your page, since this will give the wrong impression of who you are. With meta tags, misspelled words are hidden in the code of the website, but can be used to bring people to your website who may not be able to correctly spell some your services. Even putting your competitions’ names and products in your meta tags can help get traffic to your site, so that they can compare your products and services to your competitors’.
Another item that puts you high on the search engine results listing is having articles about your type of business, both on your website, and other websites that link back to yours for more information on the subject. Offering free information makes you an authority on the subject, not just someone trying to sell their wares. This plays heavily in search results, along with one-way links back to your website. When you get one-way links back to your site for more information, this gives you much credibility and definitely helps to make you an authority that other sites rely on. So when someone looks up your type of product or service for more information, obviously the search engine will give a site that has the most helpful and free information (and one that other sites rely on for more information on this subject) a higher rating and puts them higher on the search results list.
A FREE Tips & Tricks or Hints page is also a good way to get relevant traffic. People are always looking for How-To's and DIY information on all types of subjects. On my site I have FREE Tech Tips that get hits all the time, which pertain to my services. Again, a percentage of these hits click on my services. And the only way I got them there was because of the FREE How-To's that I offer. So, you have to entice people to your site, by offering more than your competitor's website. This is where these types of pages come in handy.
It is also good to have a Privacy Policy page. This shows integrity and also builds credibility and a higher ranking in the search engines. This is one item that search engines look for, in particular. Websites with a page dedicated to a Privacy Policy get a higher ranking and your site will show up higher in the search results.
A Guarantee page is also a good idea. Again, this gives credibility and will give you an edge over your competitor, who may not offer a guarantee. A website that has a guarantee, but is hard to find, makes a potential customer feel like they have something to hide and may not purchase from that website. However, if you have an easy-to-find Guarantee that you put right in their face (whether you dedicate a page to it, or you put it right on the Home page), it eases potential customers into a buying position.
You may want to have a form that allows a customer to request more information about your product or service, and which also lets the customer type in their personal information and what they are looking for. This not only helps you by getting their contact information, it also helps by prompting the potential customer into thinking about other aspects. By doing it this way, you will also get all of the information needed to correctly quote a product or service more effectively, without having to make additional phone calls to the customer. The more common way of requesting information is just by posting an INFO email address and hope that the person requesting the info knows enough about what he is looking for to provide all of the info to get a good quote. This is not usually the case. Most of the time they need a form to fill out. In most cases, there is info that is left out. A form ensures that you get everything needed to quote the product or service accurately. And, also, by offering a form to request more info, leads will be generating 24-7 for you. All you have to do is the quote and give them a call. This reduces the need for cold-calling, and gives you an excuse to call and close the deal.
If you incorporate all of the above pages, along with the “way” these pages should be shown, your website will have a higher ranking in the search engines, which puts your website higher in the search results, thus significantly increasing the traffic to your website!
The above categories aren't the only things you can do to increase traffic to your website. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) should also be done, as well as swapping links with relevant websites, and posting articles and links back to your website from online article and content websites.
To have an award-winning and specially-formulated website designed for your company, contact Michigan Tech Group TODAY at (810) 496-4595 or email us at info@MichiganTechGroup.com Visit us online at http://www.MichiganTechGroup.com
Good luck. I hope this article has helped you. If you live in the Lapeer, Genesee, or Tuscola County, Michigan areas, and would like an IT Professional to do a professional to help you in your home or business,please contact Michigan Tech Group at (810) 496-4595, or visit our website at http://www.MichiganTechGroup.com. You can email us at info@MichiganTechGroup.com.
If you would like to use this article for any publication, you may do so if you do NOT change any of the content, and the tag line remains intact.
A Proven Formula for All Websites
Every business needs a website. It is an absolute MUST! Nowadays, it’s like not being in the phone book. The Internet is a digitally-indexed database that is searchable. Whenever anyone wants to know more about anything, they look it up on the Internet, in their own time, 24/7, without the pressure of a sales person. With search engines, such as Google.com or Yahoo.com, the information they are looking for can be found in seconds.
If you aren’t where people are looking, you CAN’T get the sale.
Even if you aren’t planning on selling anything online, you still need to have an Internet presence, telling your story and being a 24/7 sales person for you. The Internet is information. So, even if you just have an informational website, people can find out more about you, your company, what you have to offer, and why they should choose you over your competition. A website gives you the opportunity to get all of that across to your potential customer.
Following, are proven components of a website and why you will need them in yours.
A Home Page is the window into your website and should be short, sweat, and to the point. Statistically, it has been proven that you get about 3 seconds, once a person arrives at your website, to get them interested enough to click for more information. If you can get them to click, then you have them! If you try to give them all of the information at once, then you will lose them.
Some websites try to give you their inventory on the home page, or write a story that scrolls forever. This is not good. A home page should not scroll. This is a big “No No”. When people get to a home page and see paragraphs, trust me, they go on to the next website. It needs graphics that represent the services, happy pictures, happy customers, and a quick sales pitch. Remember, people are lazy and won’t read large amounts of text, unless they have a need to. And included on the home page, needs to be quickly gotten across, why someone should use you over your competitor.
The About Us page sometimes gets left off, in favor of making the home page the About Us page. You will want to have an About Us page that explains in detail what you have to offer, your history, your mission statement, and a good reason that a potential customer should use buy from you over your competitor. This can be seen as the detailed version of the home page. However, it is a mistake to forgo the About Us page in exchange for a detailed home page. Again, this will just push people away who do not want to read all of the details to find out who you are and what you have to offer. This information should be available for those who wish to see more information after they are intrigued by the home page.
Design rules. For uniformity and good design, websites (any marketing piece) should have rules for graphic elements and text. For example, all headings should be the same size/style/color, etc. All subheads should have their own size/style/color, etc. This helps the eye make sense of what it is looking at. Guide your visitor with well-placed graphics and text.
Make sure that your website has good navigation, with buttons/links for all main sections of your website. And be sure to keep these navigation buttons/links visible on ANY page. There is nothing more frustrating than to not be able to find your way while browsing a website. People will leave before becoming too frustrated. Don’t let this happen on your website!
The constant, flashing email (or other) button/advertisement is a "No No" these days. In the old days, flashing and blinking graphics were used. As websites became more graphically sophisticated, these types of elements were not used any more. It can be annoying to see something flashing just off your vision, when you are trying to read the web page.
Text links at the bottom are rarely used any more. They were implemented back in the day of the text-based websites, when they were just starting out. This was for the dial-up users who had the option to turn off graphics for faster web page loading. When this happened, there were no links for navigation, unless a webmaster placed text links at the bottom. Nowadays, most people have broadband connections, and this just isn't necessary any more.
The biggest problem I see with websites these days is that a person has to read quite a bit to see what, exactly, a website is selling. When people show up at your website, you get about 3 seconds to peak their interest. Get it across very quickly, with icons/graphics/bullet points that are easy to understand. Tell them why they should choose you over your competition. And then tell them where to go to get started.
Another very important element is testimonials. More important than telling them why a potential customer should use your services over your competitions’, is a customer of yours saying the same thing. Not only is a testimonial someone who used your services, but they can say "how" you were able to help them. This gives new potential customers ideas on how your services will help “them”. Testimonials are also sales pitches from your happy customers, people just like them. They are people who were in the same position as they are right now and they got through it, so they can too. They also build credibility. When you are endorsed by other people, you have credibility and that you can do what you say you can do. And even though they may be saying the same thing that you are saying, it is coming from someone just like them, and not someone who is trying to sell them anything. They have nothing to gain by saying this. You do. So they need to hear from them. You absolutely MUST have endorsements for your business; otherwise, you are just blowing your own horn!
The next best thing to a testimonial page is an FAQ page. An FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page answers questions for your company 24/7, when you can't be at the phone to answer, and for people who would rather look over your information than speak to someone who might try to sell them something. FAQs also help to give scenarios of how they can be helped, by answering questions that other potential customers have asked, and they might not have thought of themselves. This gets them thinking and gives them answers in a risk-free environment. It is VERY important to have an FAQ working for you 24/7. It's like having a free sales person working for you around the clock, fielding all questions that might come up! It's a MUST-have for ANY website!
Your website should also have a clear "call to action". A lot of websites say that “we are here and we do this”, but they don't tell them how to get started, or tell them where to go to get started right now... no call to action. Now that they have the information, now what? People are like sheep. They must be led. You must lead them to the next level; otherwise, they probably won't get there. You should have calls to action by all services, and on your home page. You should sprinkle testimonials throughout, as well, leading them back to the full testimonials and then to the call to action, which should be placed on the testimonials page, as well. You could offer a FREE Consultation by calling right now… or click HERE now to email us 24/7 for a FREE Consultation… something that tells them where to go from here and a reason to get started right now and how.
There also needs to be graphics to help tell the story; high-end icons that help draw the eye to the item of interest, to get them to read it. Having a text-only page usually does not get read. People are lazy and will not usually read paragraphs of information in hopes of getting the information they are looking for. They would have to first be extremely interested before reading the “fine print”. And to get them interested, it should be broken up with graphics that represent each section. They will see the related graphic first, and then move to that area if interested. But to give them a page of information usually doesn't work.
You also need meta tags. This is very important to search engines. These are hidden key words and phrases that describe what you offer, but also your location, etc. Search engines rely heavily on key words and phrases in order to give your website as a result in a search done for your type of business. In fact, it is also good to have misspelled keywords that people might type in order to find you. Obviously, you won’t want to have misspelled words or phrases on your page, since this will give the wrong impression of who you are. With meta tags, misspelled words are hidden in the code of the website, but can be used to bring people to your website who may not be able to correctly spell some your services. Even putting your competitions’ names and products in your meta tags can help get traffic to your site, so that they can compare your products and services to your competitors’.
Another item that puts you high on the search engine results listing is having articles about your type of business, both on your website, and other websites that link back to yours for more information on the subject. Offering free information makes you an authority on the subject, not just someone trying to sell their wares. This plays heavily in search results, along with one-way links back to your website. When you get one-way links back to your site for more information, this gives you much credibility and definitely helps to make you an authority that other sites rely on. So when someone looks up your type of product or service for more information, obviously the search engine will give a site that has the most helpful and free information (and one that other sites rely on for more information on this subject) a higher rating and puts them higher on the search results list.
A FREE Tips & Tricks or Hints page is also a good way to get relevant traffic. People are always looking for How-To's and DIY information on all types of subjects. On my site I have FREE Tech Tips that get hits all the time, which pertain to my services. Again, a percentage of these hits click on my services. And the only way I got them there was because of the FREE How-To's that I offer. So, you have to entice people to your site, by offering more than your competitor's website. This is where these types of pages come in handy.
It is also good to have a Privacy Policy page. This shows integrity and also builds credibility and a higher ranking in the search engines. This is one item that search engines look for, in particular. Websites with a page dedicated to a Privacy Policy get a higher ranking and your site will show up higher in the search results.
A Guarantee page is also a good idea. Again, this gives credibility and will give you an edge over your competitor, who may not offer a guarantee. A website that has a guarantee, but is hard to find, makes a potential customer feel like they have something to hide and may not purchase from that website. However, if you have an easy-to-find Guarantee that you put right in their face (whether you dedicate a page to it, or you put it right on the Home page), it eases potential customers into a buying position.
You may want to have a form that allows a customer to request more information about your product or service, and which also lets the customer type in their personal information and what they are looking for. This not only helps you by getting their contact information, it also helps by prompting the potential customer into thinking about other aspects. By doing it this way, you will also get all of the information needed to correctly quote a product or service more effectively, without having to make additional phone calls to the customer. The more common way of requesting information is just by posting an INFO email address and hope that the person requesting the info knows enough about what he is looking for to provide all of the info to get a good quote. This is not usually the case. Most of the time they need a form to fill out. In most cases, there is info that is left out. A form ensures that you get everything needed to quote the product or service accurately. And, also, by offering a form to request more info, leads will be generating 24-7 for you. All you have to do is the quote and give them a call. This reduces the need for cold-calling, and gives you an excuse to call and close the deal.
If you incorporate all of the above pages, along with the “way” these pages should be shown, your website will have a higher ranking in the search engines, which puts your website higher in the search results, thus significantly increasing the traffic to your website!
The above categories aren't the only things you can do to increase traffic to your website. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) should also be done, as well as swapping links with relevant websites, and posting articles and links back to your website from online article and content websites.
To have an award-winning and specially-formulated website designed for your company, contact Michigan Tech Group TODAY at (810) 496-4595 or email us at info@MichiganTechGroup.com Visit us online at http://www.MichiganTechGroup.com
Good luck. I hope this article has helped you. If you live in the Lapeer, Genesee, or Tuscola County, Michigan areas, and would like an IT Professional to do a professional to help you in your home or business,please contact Michigan Tech Group at (810) 496-4595, or visit our website at http://www.MichiganTechGroup.com. You can email us at info@MichiganTechGroup.com.
If you would like to use this article for any publication, you may do so if you do NOT change any of the content, and the tag line remains intact.
Advantages of a Custom Website versus using a Website Builder Tool
by: Rodney Ringler
Advantages of a custom website versus using a Website Builder Tool
The internet has revolutionized business all around the globe. Almost every competent new or existing business wishes to exploit the incredible potential of the internet, and the first step is to have a web site designed done and maintained by a professional web site design service or build and maintain it yourself. One of the first things to consider is your computer ability. If you despise computers and software and find them confusing and frustrating then building your own website can be quite a task. One that you may not want to undertake. However, if you enjoy working with computers and learning new things or if you just have the patience to stick with it, then building a website is within your grasp. You may also decide to do it yourself to save cost. If you still feel that you want to build your own site you should choose software that is easy to use and user friendly.
Your website should be as unique as you and your business. You should select the website that is specialized in what will meet all your needs, both now and in the future. Custom based websites are for those who already have a website but are looking for those special finishing touches that quality custom graphics can provide. Designer graphics can make your website stand out above the rest and a custom website specializes in taking your original graphic or photo and turning it into a unique work of art. Quality graphics make an incredible difference in the visual appeal of your website.
Actual site "content" continues to be essential to the success of a website. More often than not though, visual appeal is the determining factor as to whether or not a client or customer will remain on a website long enough, to actually see the product or service the business is providing. Custom websites are for those who don’t have the time to design or create, but want to get things mush better and fast with a nice graphics.
Web site builders are online tools which anyone can use to build a professional looking Web site without programming and have it hosted instantly. No software to buy, no code to learn, all you need is to be a little Internet savvy and know how to click your mouse.
Most business owners today know that having a web site is an essential component of marketing. In the past, the choices were to hire a professional web designer, hire a local teenager to create a site for mall money, or learn to do it yourself. The last two options, are the least expensive, and were the preferred method for small businesses. The results are often not what businesses need to grow, reach, and impress new potential customers, however. They seem good at the start but quickly become limiting.
If you operate or manage a business, you surely must realize the increase in e-commerce taking place today. Many businesses find themselves searching for the best way to increase their exposure on the internet, and for most a website is the first course of action. As most businesses operate on firm budgets, finding cost effective solutions are usually one of the first thoughts when looking to make new purchases. When it comes to creating a website there are many affordable software programs that can produce professional results. Business software should be capable of handling your needs today and in the future. Business are always changing, adding new products, changing or removing old products, offering specials, having sales, etc. By choosing a business website builder over a professional web designer you will be able to make changes to your website whenever you want to. Another benefit is that you will be avoiding the high costs associated with developing the website and costs for making any necessary changes.
Website Builder tools advantages to you are increased revenue, cost control, caters to the large demand existing for web designing in the SME sector and can increase the client base without adding to your overhead. The advantage that your customers gets is a professional quality website, up and running in minutes and a User friendly and easily customizable interfaces that gives a complete website with all its frills and features and a nice attractive design. The downside is that you are limited to the look and functions of the tool and the templates or designs they provide.
On of the advantage of a custom website design is that the web site will look and function exactly as you want. A custom made web site can promote your brand and increase sales. The functionality and design of your website is important, because the images and text on the screen can make an indifferent visitor turn into a keen client, and the goal is to optimize your site to evolve maximum traffic conversion.
As more and more people are starting their own small home business many are finding that having a website is an important factor to consider. When one starts to consider building a website, especially the novice, many questions arise including…. can I create a website myself or should I hire a professional?
Hiring a professional is a great way to go if you can afford it. Although there are several things to keep in mind: how much will it cost? How much will ongoing maintenance cost? What will changes cost? How long will changes take? etc. As a result, many people opt to build their own website and begin searching for software that can easily help them.
As you start searching for an easy web site builder, there are some factors that you should take into consideration so that your new software will serve you now and the future.
There is quite a variety of easy web site building software and content management(CMS) based websites on the market today. In addition, some of the software available today is very expensive, geared more for the professional web designer, and come with a huge learning curve.
The options for small businesses to get a site developed have changed from the past. There are now sophisticated "site builder" tools available to small business owners, bundled with many web hosting packages. By using templates, and a content management system to manage updates to the site, it became easier to set up and maintain a web site, and many development companies have canned this functionality, for a fee. Hosting providers are increasingly offering tools to automate the web site building process, and with good reason. This new option has many benefits, as long as the business owner recognizes that there are trade offs and limitations to getting a web site this way. Some of the downsides are…the design is limited to their predefined templates. The functionality is limited to the tool. Also, in most website builder tools it is hard to perform search engine optimization, which is essential for a site to be found in the major search engines.
One of the biggest attractions for site building tools is the cost. It won't necessarily cost less to get your site this way, but it does provide a way to spread the cost over time. The cost for a custom website varies as per the feature and function it carries with itself.
Many people are concerned with building their own website, fearing boring designs and complexity. However, it is now becoming apparent that there are many custom web site builder software products on the market that promise dynamic layouts, professional templates, and user friendly web design tools. The professional web designers know there are a few more things to know, but sometimes they find some irony in the fact that web developers, in their quest to improve and better the web, have made themselves "optional". Most site building tools today are very robust, making it simple to add forms, searching, maps, guest books, calendars, and a whole variety of elements to a web site. Even better, the hosting company sometimes offers an entire suite of services - the site builder, email marketing, search engine optimization and statistics, all in one package along with the hosting.
There is also a possibility that the service will require you to keep some branding on the site telling people that you used their website designs and tools. This is more common with the free site builders - which pay for themselves by putting ads on your site. If your goal is to build a business web site, it's really not worth sacrificing your professional image by getting something free, which screams CHEAP.
Low quality websites sometimes attempt to sell expensive products or services. These websites cannot succeed. Studies reveals people spend more time on a well designed web page than on a low quality web page. There is a comparative relationship between the amount of time that an average visitor will spend on a web page and the amount of time that was spent building the web page.
Websites are an important aspect of online businesses. They are the first face of interaction between the user and the business. The website creates the first impression on the user and hence needs to be effective and impressive too. It is the job of web design services to make the website user friendly and search engine friendly too, so that it can serve the purpose of both effectively.
A tool can make things happen - but if you don't know what to make happen, it is either a useless tool or a dangerous one. There is a learning curve in knowing how to present information online (called information architecture in the profession), as well as for using the site builder. In other word, the fuller featured the tool; the more there is to learn. If you aren't familiar with color theory, use of typography, information architecture, navigation and interface design, and page layout and design, you can potentially make something that will hurt your business more than help it. So, unless you are already computer and web savvy, figuring out all the features within your web hosting and site builder package can be time consuming and frustrating.
In the end there are ways that a business can take advantage of these new options and still create a functional and professional web site. One way is simply take your time and research the available website templates, and find the one that has the most features and flexibility, that meet your functional requirements. In other words, spend the time to learn the things a seasoned pro would bring to the table. The internet is a massive library of "how to" information, where you can literally teach yourself anything - and with enough time spent, you could potentially learn how to layout information, what colors and fonts work well together, how to conduct your marketing online and optimize the site for search engines. The second is choosing the best suitable custom website design company and work with them to build a professional website that meets your needs get your imaginations carried and make business a greta success.
About HostChart.com
HostChart, a Web Hosting Company Resource, is a leading web hosting directory website that has been in business for over 5 years. They provide numerous web hosting articles and tutorials as well as news, interviews, and reviews. You can use their extensive set of tools to research and evaluate your current or future web hosts. HostChart is a Property of Advantage1 Web Services, which also operates ResellerConnection.com, a a href="Reseller" class="hft-urls">http://www.resellerconnection.com">Reseller Web Hosting Resource, HostingKnowledge.net, and FoundHost.com, a a href="Budget" class="hft-urls">http://www.foundhost.com">Budget Hosting Resource.
Advantages of a custom website versus using a Website Builder Tool
The internet has revolutionized business all around the globe. Almost every competent new or existing business wishes to exploit the incredible potential of the internet, and the first step is to have a web site designed done and maintained by a professional web site design service or build and maintain it yourself. One of the first things to consider is your computer ability. If you despise computers and software and find them confusing and frustrating then building your own website can be quite a task. One that you may not want to undertake. However, if you enjoy working with computers and learning new things or if you just have the patience to stick with it, then building a website is within your grasp. You may also decide to do it yourself to save cost. If you still feel that you want to build your own site you should choose software that is easy to use and user friendly.
Your website should be as unique as you and your business. You should select the website that is specialized in what will meet all your needs, both now and in the future. Custom based websites are for those who already have a website but are looking for those special finishing touches that quality custom graphics can provide. Designer graphics can make your website stand out above the rest and a custom website specializes in taking your original graphic or photo and turning it into a unique work of art. Quality graphics make an incredible difference in the visual appeal of your website.
Actual site "content" continues to be essential to the success of a website. More often than not though, visual appeal is the determining factor as to whether or not a client or customer will remain on a website long enough, to actually see the product or service the business is providing. Custom websites are for those who don’t have the time to design or create, but want to get things mush better and fast with a nice graphics.
Web site builders are online tools which anyone can use to build a professional looking Web site without programming and have it hosted instantly. No software to buy, no code to learn, all you need is to be a little Internet savvy and know how to click your mouse.
Most business owners today know that having a web site is an essential component of marketing. In the past, the choices were to hire a professional web designer, hire a local teenager to create a site for mall money, or learn to do it yourself. The last two options, are the least expensive, and were the preferred method for small businesses. The results are often not what businesses need to grow, reach, and impress new potential customers, however. They seem good at the start but quickly become limiting.
If you operate or manage a business, you surely must realize the increase in e-commerce taking place today. Many businesses find themselves searching for the best way to increase their exposure on the internet, and for most a website is the first course of action. As most businesses operate on firm budgets, finding cost effective solutions are usually one of the first thoughts when looking to make new purchases. When it comes to creating a website there are many affordable software programs that can produce professional results. Business software should be capable of handling your needs today and in the future. Business are always changing, adding new products, changing or removing old products, offering specials, having sales, etc. By choosing a business website builder over a professional web designer you will be able to make changes to your website whenever you want to. Another benefit is that you will be avoiding the high costs associated with developing the website and costs for making any necessary changes.
Website Builder tools advantages to you are increased revenue, cost control, caters to the large demand existing for web designing in the SME sector and can increase the client base without adding to your overhead. The advantage that your customers gets is a professional quality website, up and running in minutes and a User friendly and easily customizable interfaces that gives a complete website with all its frills and features and a nice attractive design. The downside is that you are limited to the look and functions of the tool and the templates or designs they provide.
On of the advantage of a custom website design is that the web site will look and function exactly as you want. A custom made web site can promote your brand and increase sales. The functionality and design of your website is important, because the images and text on the screen can make an indifferent visitor turn into a keen client, and the goal is to optimize your site to evolve maximum traffic conversion.
As more and more people are starting their own small home business many are finding that having a website is an important factor to consider. When one starts to consider building a website, especially the novice, many questions arise including…. can I create a website myself or should I hire a professional?
Hiring a professional is a great way to go if you can afford it. Although there are several things to keep in mind: how much will it cost? How much will ongoing maintenance cost? What will changes cost? How long will changes take? etc. As a result, many people opt to build their own website and begin searching for software that can easily help them.
As you start searching for an easy web site builder, there are some factors that you should take into consideration so that your new software will serve you now and the future.
There is quite a variety of easy web site building software and content management(CMS) based websites on the market today. In addition, some of the software available today is very expensive, geared more for the professional web designer, and come with a huge learning curve.
The options for small businesses to get a site developed have changed from the past. There are now sophisticated "site builder" tools available to small business owners, bundled with many web hosting packages. By using templates, and a content management system to manage updates to the site, it became easier to set up and maintain a web site, and many development companies have canned this functionality, for a fee. Hosting providers are increasingly offering tools to automate the web site building process, and with good reason. This new option has many benefits, as long as the business owner recognizes that there are trade offs and limitations to getting a web site this way. Some of the downsides are…the design is limited to their predefined templates. The functionality is limited to the tool. Also, in most website builder tools it is hard to perform search engine optimization, which is essential for a site to be found in the major search engines.
One of the biggest attractions for site building tools is the cost. It won't necessarily cost less to get your site this way, but it does provide a way to spread the cost over time. The cost for a custom website varies as per the feature and function it carries with itself.
Many people are concerned with building their own website, fearing boring designs and complexity. However, it is now becoming apparent that there are many custom web site builder software products on the market that promise dynamic layouts, professional templates, and user friendly web design tools. The professional web designers know there are a few more things to know, but sometimes they find some irony in the fact that web developers, in their quest to improve and better the web, have made themselves "optional". Most site building tools today are very robust, making it simple to add forms, searching, maps, guest books, calendars, and a whole variety of elements to a web site. Even better, the hosting company sometimes offers an entire suite of services - the site builder, email marketing, search engine optimization and statistics, all in one package along with the hosting.
There is also a possibility that the service will require you to keep some branding on the site telling people that you used their website designs and tools. This is more common with the free site builders - which pay for themselves by putting ads on your site. If your goal is to build a business web site, it's really not worth sacrificing your professional image by getting something free, which screams CHEAP.
Low quality websites sometimes attempt to sell expensive products or services. These websites cannot succeed. Studies reveals people spend more time on a well designed web page than on a low quality web page. There is a comparative relationship between the amount of time that an average visitor will spend on a web page and the amount of time that was spent building the web page.
Websites are an important aspect of online businesses. They are the first face of interaction between the user and the business. The website creates the first impression on the user and hence needs to be effective and impressive too. It is the job of web design services to make the website user friendly and search engine friendly too, so that it can serve the purpose of both effectively.
A tool can make things happen - but if you don't know what to make happen, it is either a useless tool or a dangerous one. There is a learning curve in knowing how to present information online (called information architecture in the profession), as well as for using the site builder. In other word, the fuller featured the tool; the more there is to learn. If you aren't familiar with color theory, use of typography, information architecture, navigation and interface design, and page layout and design, you can potentially make something that will hurt your business more than help it. So, unless you are already computer and web savvy, figuring out all the features within your web hosting and site builder package can be time consuming and frustrating.
In the end there are ways that a business can take advantage of these new options and still create a functional and professional web site. One way is simply take your time and research the available website templates, and find the one that has the most features and flexibility, that meet your functional requirements. In other words, spend the time to learn the things a seasoned pro would bring to the table. The internet is a massive library of "how to" information, where you can literally teach yourself anything - and with enough time spent, you could potentially learn how to layout information, what colors and fonts work well together, how to conduct your marketing online and optimize the site for search engines. The second is choosing the best suitable custom website design company and work with them to build a professional website that meets your needs get your imaginations carried and make business a greta success.
About HostChart.com
HostChart, a Web Hosting Company Resource, is a leading web hosting directory website that has been in business for over 5 years. They provide numerous web hosting articles and tutorials as well as news, interviews, and reviews. You can use their extensive set of tools to research and evaluate your current or future web hosts. HostChart is a Property of Advantage1 Web Services, which also operates ResellerConnection.com, a a href="Reseller" class="hft-urls">http://www.resellerconnection.com">Reseller Web Hosting Resource, HostingKnowledge.net, and FoundHost.com, a a href="Budget" class="hft-urls">http://www.foundhost.com">Budget Hosting Resource.
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