How to Build A Website that gets CLICKS!

Your web site image means everything.

Here are some tips you need to know about getting the right web-site image.

- Beauty vs. simplicity.

In a business web site, we can always find some beautiful background image or eye-catching background color. In some company websites, they also use some company photo, factory photo or product photo as the website background. Actually, it is not the right way to do. The right way is "Make it simple".

You will never find a background image in Yahoo, Google. People visit your website is looking for information not the beautiful background. Moreover, the background image has disadvantages: loading time will be longer and distract the visitor attention. Think again what information the background image can bring to your customer?

- Only use images if you need to

Use images only if image can present more clearly than text. For example, you can use image to present the order process. Size of those images should be small.

- Page Frames are a no-no

Many websites use frames to make the navigation easier. However, more and more website designers don't use frames anymore in web design. It is because frames alter the whole design and also makes the visitor confused and makes it difficult to find. Using CSS or JavaScript can provides similar effect but can keep the design consistency.

- Under construction signs leads to detours

Have you see those "Road Construction" image? Or those "Under construction, please come back later"? Don't waste your visitor's time. If your webpage isn't finished, don't put it up. It's just best to have a 404 page.

If you really need to put this "Under Construction", here are some suggestions

- Raise the visitor curiosity; tell them what surprise they may get once the webpage open.

- Make it like a fiction. Everyday you put some additional information on it, make the visitor re-visit. This can greatly encourage the visitor to visit again.

Remember, no one like those boring "Under Construction". Turn it into a marketing event.

When you're in business and you are developing projects, it is so important to set deadlines and goals for each phase of the project so that you can have satisfied customers.

Project Management is becoming a lost art for people who work from their homes because of the trappings of being comfortable and the urge to just sit back and relax.

Deadlines have a way of sneaking up on people, especially those who procrastinate. Procrastination could lead to a lost of clients and hurt your business severely. You should annotate deadlines and target dates aggressively when you're working on a client's project.

There is a great software program that will assist you in determining lead ties, target dates, benchmarks and project milestones. That software is Microsoft Visio.

Microsoft Visio allows you to track all of your projects neatly and in an organized manner. Depending on what client or project that you are working, MS Visio has template files to assist you in the type of project tracking that you want to implement. It also allows you to create flowcharts for management of processes pertaining to a client's project.

The best feature that Visio has is automated budget and tracking. It will automatically create reports based on module activity. Visio also allows you to create strategic and action plans based on the data that you have input into the plan. It can also integrate information into MS Excel, MS PowerPoint to do certain reports and calculations. Visio is a great package for SOHO owners who want to graphically integrate daily tasks into their work schedules via software applications.

Microsoft Outlook is a smaller scale version of Visio without all of the modules. MS Outlook can be used for project management but Visio is the best!

In any event, as a business owner, you should take client deadlines seriously. Don't wait until the last minute to get going! Use a tool like MS Visio to keep your clients project on track.

The appearance of your web site text can actually increase or decrease your sales.

The size, font, style and color of your text can easily affect your reader's buying decision. Below are ten points to consider when typing text on your web site.

1. Easy To Read- You want to make it easy for your visitors to read your text. You don't want to use a light colored text like yellow on a white background and you don't want to use dark blue text on a black back-ground.

2. Create A Mood- You want to use the color of your text to create a mood for the reader. If you want to create excitement, use some red text. If you want to create greed, use a some green text. Use colors that would put you in a mood to buy your product.

3. Grab Their Attention- You can grab your readers attention by using headlines. Make the headline more noticeable by using a different colored headline than your ad copy. This offsets the headline and pulls the reader into the rest of your ad copy.

4. Highlight Keywords- You can emphasize phrases and keywords that are important to your readers. For instance, use super, deluxe, fast, low price, free, new, etc. You could use bolding, underlining, italics, color changing, etc.

5. Sizing It Up- You don't want to use text that is too small or to large. You want to use larger text for your headlines and subheadings. You want to use smaller text for your ad copy. If your grandparents can't read it, it's too small.

6. Don't Use All CAPS!- You don't want to use all capital letters in your ad copy. It looks unprofessional and is hard to read. You may want to use all CAPS in your headlines to offset it.

7. Font Properly- You want to use a text font that relates to the product or services your selling. You don't want to use a comic type font when your selling business books.

8. Spacing Out- It's important to use spaces properly when typing your text. You should indent and bullet key benefits your product or service will give the reader. Your headlines, subheadings, sentences and paragraphs should be consistently spaced throughout your web site.

9. I Need Sunglasses- Don't use all bright text colors and backgrounds on your web site. It will make your text hard to read and actually bother your readers' eyes to the point they just decide to leave your site.

10. Check The Readability- It's important to check your spelling and grammar before you upload your web page. When writing an ad copy you're allowed to break some of those grammar rules to get your point across.

1. Offer other web sites free content to post on their web site. Include your link on all of your content. The content should related to your web site because it will be in front of your target audience.

2. When you visit a web site you've enjoyed a lot, write a review for the site. Write about the benefits you gain from the web site. Tell them they can publish it on their web site if they link to your web site.

3. Allow other people to publish your e-zine on their web site. Include your web site's ad and link in each issue you publish. This may also help you increase the number of people that subscribe to your e-zine.

4. Market your web site as a free web book. Design your web site with a title page, table of contents, chapters, etc. Just allow other people to give away the web book by linking to your web site.

5. Give your visitors an instant article directory. Tell your visitors they can instantly add a free article directory to their web site by linking to yours. Just place your ad or banner ad on top of the article directory for your main web site.

6. Allow other web sites to use your discussion board for their web site visitors. Just have them link directly to the discussion board. Include your web sites ad or banner ad at the top of the discussion board.

7. Start a members only web site. Tell visitors what's in your members only site and what it costs to gain access. Offer them a free membership if, in exchange, they link to your web site.

8. Offer your visitors a free sign up to your affiliate program. Pay them commission to sell your products or services. Just give them an affiliate link to track their sales. People will link to your web site to make extra money.

9. Create your own award site for other web sites. Give the winners a graphic or text link to place on their web site when they win. This will link your web site to theirs and draw more traffic to your web site.

10. Are you an expert on a particular subject? Offer people free consulting via e-mail if, in exchange, they either link to your site. People will consider this a huge value because consulting fees can be very expensive.

11. When you purchase a product and it exceeds your expectations e-mail the business a testimonial. Make sure your statement is detailed. Give them permission to publish it on their web site if they link to your site.

12. Create a directory of web sites on a specific topic. Give people the option of adding the directory to their web site by linking to it. Put your business ad at the top of the directory's home page.

13. Exchange content with other web sites. You could trade articles, top ten lists, etc. Both parties could include a resource box at the end of the content.

14. Allow people to download software at no charge from your web site, if they link to your web site. The software could be freeware, shareware or demos.

15. Trade other forms of advertising to people that link to your web site. You could trade e-zine ads, print ads, autoresponder ads, classified ads, ebook ads, etc.

16. Give away web space to people for free. Since you are giving it away for free, request they link to your site by placing your ad or banner to the site.

17. Join or create a web ring. A web ring is a group of web sites on a similar subject agreeing to link together. To find a web ring to join type keywords "web rings" into your search engine of choice.

18. Create an online club or association. Tell your visitors what's included in the membership and what it costs to join. Offer them a free membership if, in exchange, they link to your web site.

19. Allow people to use an online service or utilities from your web site if, in exchange, they link to your web site. The online service could be an e-mail account, search engine submission, web page design, copywriting, proofreading, etc.

20. Offer a free e-book to your web site visitors. The ebook should be related to your target audience. Allow them to give the e-book to their own web site visitors by linking directly to your web site.