Web Design Development Articles

Are your loved one’s possessions taking over your storage space? Are they taking over the house? Here’s how to break the news that the whole lot’s going on eBay - and how to get the best results, or Ebid.net, Amazon.com, Tazbar, Etsy.com, Bonanzle.com, Atomic Mall or any other of the myriad sites that have sprung up in recent years. Here is my list of a few important things to keep in mind.

1 GET HIS PERMISSION!

Okay, maybe it was his idea. In that case you don’t have a problem: only a sudden lack of any free time whatsoever, what with all the photographing, editing photographs, uploading, listing, answering queries… I do hope he’s taking you out for a super great dinner after all this.

Otherwise - maybe you just can’t bear to see his ten-years-unused college hockey gear/collection of magazines for the car he sold five years back/beautifully boxed complete set of Star Wars figurines for one moment longer! (Or you’ve had a little snoop around the net and experienced a sharp intake of breath when you found out what they were worth…) If so, gird up your loins, make sure he’s with the program, and get ready for a marathon listing session.

2 DON’T LET IT SUCK UP YOUR ENTIRE FREE TIME

It is for his benefit, after all. Or perhaps it’s for the both of you, if the plan is to address it to the mortgage or shared debts/pension plan etc. Either way he should be contributing in some way, if not with the aforementioned lavish dinner (and perhaps a flashy new pair of shoes too), then with hard labour. Plump up his ego as you tell him how much you admire his photographic skills - then set him to work.

3 KNOW WHERE TO DRAW THE LINE

And that means both of you. What do I mean? Sometimes in the midst of the giddy excitement of online sales, it’s possible to get over-excited. Especially when you’re having a boom period and the sales are coming thick and fast. Or maybe when they’ve temporarily dried up and you’re feeling a little desperate, short of your regular sales fix.

That’s when you’re at risk of making unwise choices in your next clear-out and sort through in search of fresh inventory meat. When you become ruthless enough to coldly eye, with an appraising turn of mind, your old childhood toys, the signed concert ticket for your all-time favourite band, the silver locket your auntie gave you at graduation - just stop. Back away from the computer keyboard. Put that digital camera down.

Some things have more value than the price they’ll fetch. And some are too unique to replace when you regret the sale later.

4 MANAGE HIS EXPECTATIONS

Before you get down to the nitty-gritty of actually selling off his cherished possessions, maybe you and your loved one need to have a frank talk. Perhaps the talk where you break the news that his cherished Spiderman comics - loved to death during his hyperactive teens and complete with stains you’d rather not enquire about - are just not going to command the same price as immaculate copies. Or that he really should have kept his model cars pristine in their original boxes, not scuffed and with the wheels off, if he wanted them to bring in the coin twenty years later.

Hold his hand. It’s going to be tough.

5 IF HE’S DUMPED YOU FOR A YOUNGER MODEL, ALL BETS ARE OFF

Check out pp. 68-71 from Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity (1) to find out what I’m talking about. Guys, read it too. Then you’ll behave yourselves.

Now you have five top tips to enhance the experience of dumping your guy’s junk onto eBay or wherever. Put them to good use and remember, his junk is, er, still junk in someone else’s house. But it won’t be you tripping over it anymore.

1. Hornby, Nick. High Fidelity. (London: Cassell Group, 1996), pp. 68-71.

There are so many articles being written telling marketers what TO do with their marketing efforts. But how many do you see that say, “Don’t do this or you’ll end up like a fried egg?” It’s just as important to know what NOT to do as it is to know what TO do. So this article is going to be my little warning shot across the bow of your marketing efforts. I hope you will take these words to heart.

First do not…Do NOT believe that the only marketing worth anything is the kind you pay for. Let me tell you something. I am as cheap as they come. I spend maybe $200 a month on advertising. Know where most of my traffic comes from? My articles…and they don’t cost me a cent. There are many forms of traffic generation that don’t cost a penny that are quite effective. The key is knowing how to use them. So don’t get suckered into the belief that the only good traffic is the kind that you pay for. It’s simply not true.

Second do not…Do NOT think you have to do everything yourself. I know so many marketers who simply don’t trust anybody with their business. I should know because I was one of them. I had to do it all on my own. Ever see some of my early ecovers? It took me a long time before I was finally able to crank out something that was presentable. All that time, I could have just paid to have a professional do it for me. Okay, you don’t have to do it all on your own. Get help where you can afford it.

Third and final do not…Do NOT limit yourself to just one payment processor. This is a real sure way to kill your business. There are a lot of countries out there who don’t accept certain payment processors. If you’re using that one, you are effectively telling that part of the world that you don’t want to do business with them. So use as many as you can. You’ll find that your sales WILL increase because of it.

There you have it…3 ways to really kill your business. So don’t do these things.

End of lecture.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Making a website does not have to be some complex endeavor. With a few quick web tips, you can ease into a basic, open, light and compelling site. Together, they form a format, foundation, and inspiration to launch your lofty endeavors.

1. Keep your site basic, open and light

Keep navigation at the left, or the top, dark text on white, or light color, and background free of distracting designs. This is with few exception.

2. Write content original, bold and brief

Try not to rehash topics, that everyone has done. Try a new slant, or a bold direction that is edgy, relevant, and engaging. Keep your site content at 300 to 500 word pages. It’s more likely to be read, if you get to what you have to offer of value.

3. Establish trust with your visitors

Share a personal truth, that establishes your not a program cranking out a sales pitch, or some temperamental obscure sales promotion gimmick. Seek trust, and your visitors will be more apt to respond to your request, offer, or related mission.

4. Envision your visitors

Give thought to how your visitors feel at your site, what they seek, and if you have provided an avenue for that expectation. Your visitor is more than demographics, he or she is a seeker of truth, through information, promotion, entertainment, inspiration and compelling destination.

5. Add some personal web widgets

It seems I have a bit of a love affair with widgets. It can be easy to over clutter with them, but to compliment your content, add value for your visitors, and used sparingly, a couple gadgets can make your site sticky. Sticky content, can be both informative, interactive, entertaining and fun stuff for your visitors.

Along with these tips, it should always be noted, to keep your website updated often, to be familiar and consistent, but fresh and innovative. Throw in a surprise now and then, some little extra that says you make a commitment, that you are there, and truth is golden.

With all of the web based editors out there, it’s fairly easy to construct a basic startup site. Not that it will probably be the best website in terms of functionality, design, SEO or coding, but for many this is a great way to save some money and begin your internet presence.

However, there are some things to consider pertaining to the design, functionality and that may help your SEO.

Basic rules for layout and design:
Foundation of the Site

1. Choose Page Titles, Description and Keywords carefully. This will help search engines to find you. Don’t leave the top of the page title saying “Welcome” or “Home” this doesn’t tell the search engines anything essential about your site.

2. Keep Navigation User-Friendly. Make sure you have a top or side menu on ALL pages.

3. Keep links to a minimum. Having over a hundred links per page can increase the possibility of your site being viewed as spam.

4. Minimize scrolling. No one likes the page that scrolls on and on.

5. Write for the web. Keep things as short and sweet as possible. Use bullet points and subheadings for readers to quickly scan text.

Images

1. No clip art, animated gifs or scrolling banner elements. These are VERY outdated and even back in the day weren’t cool.

2. All images need to be optimized for web. Don’t put a 16×32 inch photo in and try to resize it down to 3 x4 inches. Your visitors will hate you - especially if they are on dialup.

3. Don’t use Flash. Regardless of how cool it looks, much of the text is embedded in the video file and therefore cannot be “read” by search engines. Only recently, Google is now capable of reading Flash technology, but other Search Engines cannot.

Text

1. Choose a Standard Font. In the World Wide Web, text that displays properly on your screen is limited to standards fonts that EVERY computer has in common. This is a basic list:
a. Arial (sans-serif)
b. Courier (serif)
c. Geneva (serif)
d. Georgia (serif)
e. Verdana (sans-serif)
f. Tahoma (sans-serif)
g. Times (serif)

2. To make matters worse, serif fonts don’t display as well due to the lack of resolution on monitors. Therefore, for clarity purposes, most fonts for website body copy should be a sans-serif font.

3. Should you decide to NOT use a standard font, the person viewing your website will not see the site as it may have been designed, and will default to whatever their browser default font is. What this means is, if you decide to use Papyrus font for your website text (cringing), and if I were to view your website and my computer doesn’t have Papyrus font, it will default to what my browser default font is (Verdana). While this may not sound like a big deal, it could be if you have forced returns or have set your Papyrus font to a very large size to compensate for legibility.

4. DON’T USE ALL CAPS. DO YOUR VISITOR A FAVOR AND USE UPPER AND LOWER CASE - AND NOT ALL CAPITALS. IT’S PROVEN THE WAY WE READ ENGLISH LETTERS IS MOSTLY RECOGNITION OF THE SHAPES OF WORDS. In all caps you lose that, thus slowing down your reader and giving the impression you are yelling at them.

5. Don’t underline text. People will think they are links. Use bold OR italics - Not bold AND italics. One is sufficient.

6. Use standard size fonts for the body copy (10 or 12pt), unless your site is intended for Senior Citizens or those with visual impairments.

7. Don’t copy text directly from Microsoft Word and paste it into your document. Word uses hidden formatting code that leaves tons of extraneous code in your HTML and confuses search engines.

Got anymore tips for do-it-yourself or amateur website builders? Feel free to leave them here.

Designing your own website could be one of the best ventures you can choose to do to make your website much more attractive to your customers and much more informative. You should definitely consider designing your website to make it not only informative but also unique and of course user friendly.

The success of your website will actually depend on the effectiveness of the design and whether or not your customers could make good use of your website. It is important that you consider hiring a professional website designer if you do not necessarily know how to design your website. If on the other hand you have an idea of how you want your website to look like but do not know how to execute it, you can also seek the help of a professional.

When you design your website, you should definitely think about the products and services you are specifically focused on. It is necessary for you to make sure that your website is complete not only with information but also with all the other important things that will make it worth visiting or logging on to.

Another thing that you need to take into consideration is how to make your website design stand out and leave an impact on your visitors and you can definitely achieve this if you are able to set up a concrete plan on how to actually make your website work to your actual advantage without having to spend too much or make things very much complicated for you.