Website visitors are a fickle lot, one minute they’re reading an incredibly crafted blog about improving their website. The next moment they’re off checking their emails. Then Facebook. Then off to a website about cheese.

It’s a little ridiculous how our attention wanders.

But I sure do like cheese! Don’t you? There are so many types and flavours! Cheese should be a food group all by itself.

Umm…but I digress…

So you need to make sure your visitors go where you want them. Which is why I didn’t include a link to Cheese.com. Ok…so I’m crap at this game. Remember: Do as I say, not as I do!

Why

Your website has a purpose, believe it or not. And it’s up to you to allow your website to be successful. You do want your website to be successful don’t you? You don’t want to give it crushing self-esteem issues later in life?

Once you know what your website is meant to do, it’s much easier to guide your visitor there. You need to map out a path for visitors to take that ends at the result you want. The trick is to get all the possible random visitor paths to end where you want.

How

To do this you just have to make the result obvious and of value to your visitor. For example, I want you to remember my website and keep visiting. So I write these short teaser blog posts and give away a lot more in-depth information in my Free Members Only Area. Aren’t I sneaky!

You get great information to help improve your website and make money. And I get the pleasure of your company. Win-Win! One day I might even have time to make some helpful and valuable products for you and make some money from this website. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

Homework

Work out what you want your visitor to do and then see if your website’s path takes them to the right destination. If it doesn’t, fix it…

Everyone was so amazed by the work of the 5 Worst Web Designers in the World I thought I better explain how to replicate the results
for all the other struggling web designers.

Here are my 5 steps to web design success:

1. Always pick colours that guarantee to make small children cry.
2. Make fonts as strange and hard to read as possible,
   everyone knows you have nothing to say anyway.
3. The more moving and flashing things you put on a website,
   the more excited the visitor will feel about the experience.
4. Browser compatibility is critical to success,
   so only use html coding techniques from 1989.
5. People love games, so make navigation like a maze.
   Last one out dies from starvation!

Follow these 5 steps and your website will be talked about by everyone on the Internet.

Because remember, it doesn’t really matter what your website
looks like or talks about
…all you need is lots and lots of traffic!

When hiring a web design company, you look at their website.

So how are these guys in business?

Welcome to Web 0.0001. Click on the links to receive the full moving images and flashing background effects that you’re just dying to see!

And the Winner by a very large nose, Flavio proves once and for all that Brazil can produce ugly things too.

Now my eyes hurt and I have a headache. Feel free to add any I’ve missed to the comments.

It’s here! Are you excited? I am…well a little.

Yes, I’ve finally finished my first little website help video. It’s nothing impressive like the StomperNet guys produce or anything. In fact, it’s dramatically unfancy but I hope the content helps you.

It talks about the biggest problems small business owners face with their websites and then presents my blueprint for a successful website.

There’s another one on the drawing board that will go a lot more in-depth but I just wanted to test the waters with this one and see what feedback I got. So please let me know what you think in the comments below.

The short version with lovely background music (~4mins):

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yWuMQUH6FpM[/youtube]

The long version with my voice over explaining it (~10mins):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnYO2YaFRAM[/youtube]

You can sign up for the next video here:
The Web Business Blunder

Ok, so I kind of trailed off in the middle of my 5 biggest secrets web designers don’t know about making money on the Internet series.

Christmas was one reason, too much work was another.

But the main reason is I wanted to separate it out as an article you must read. So that’s exactly what I’ve done by revamping my website and adding an articles and videos section.

So head on over to check it out, and read in full, The 5 Biggest Secrets your Web Designer doesn’t know about Making Money on the Internet

And when you’re done, come on back to the blog and let me know what you think or ask any questions you may have.

Talk soon.

 

 A pretty website does not equal a money making website: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It takes a lot more to succeed online than a ‘professional’ looking website. In fact, having a ‘professional’ looking website with ‘professional’ looking stock images is one of the quickest ways to lose visitors.

Your website should be simple, authentic, and represent your company. Don’t get me wrong, your website’s look and feel is an important key to success, but it’s not everything.

Oh, and if you even think about having something flashing or moving on your website, it better be a hand waving, as you’ll be waving goodbye to your visitors.

Take a look at some of the most popular websites in the world:

• Google
• YouTube

Simple, yet elegant, succeeds on the internet.

 

 The five biggest secrets your web designer doesn't know about making money on the internet: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The internet is full of websites that fail to live up to their potential. The main reason is small business owners don’t understand the potential for their website. However, most web designers don’t either!

Over the next two weeks, you’ll be light years ahead of other businesses on the internet as we discuss the five most important facts your web designer doesn’t know about making money.

We’ll be covering:

1. Why a pretty website does not make you money
2. Why salespeople are a dying breed, especially on the internet
3. How to structure your website to retain your visitors
4. The problem with marketing online, no one knows how to do it!
5. The real story on search engines

I hope you tune in and put this knowledge to good use in your business. As always, let me know your thoughts and comments below.

 

 A strong website foundation: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today I was asked about some of my marketing strategies for websites. To be honest, at first, I was a little stumped on how to answer it. Not because I don’t have lots of strategies to market a website, but I simply don’t have the results to back myself up right now.

I know I have great ideas, and I know what will work and won’t work for my clients. So what’s the problem? We simply haven’t been able to implement any marketing strategies yet!

Everyone potential client I talk to generally has a bad website. I know you think you’re different and your website is great…but let me review it and I’ll let you see what you’re missing. In order to get a website functioning correctly, we first need to build a strong foundation. There’s no point driving traffic to a website that will have visitors leaving after a few minutes. And trust me, that’s what your website is doing now unless you’re one of the very lucky ones.

So I always build a strong foundation. I’m still not happy with my own website and will be rewriting it again in the next week or so. I’m also still waiting on my graphic designer to finish it off. Not because she’s lazy, she’s just had to focus on our clients first.

That is frustratingly apparent in our own marketing too. I’m actually not marketing myself at all in the old fashioned sense and still have a steady stream of customers. Part of that is the social marketing approach I’m using, the other part is the impression we make on all our current clients. Trust me, when I get some new people trained, you’ll be seeing some great marketing (and free information for you) coming out of this website!

The moral of the story is, if you’re looking for a way to market your website, how about first looking at your current websites performance. You’re a lot better off to be impressing every single visitor than having millions and only capturing a few. Increase your conversion rates through better website design and content first. That’s the way to build a great website that grows your business.

 

 How to get ripped off for web design: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

So you’re looking to get ripped off for the design of your new website? No problem! Here’s my easy guide to help you out:

Step 1. Decide you want a website.

Step 2. Approach a web design company.

And that’s it folks. This is a sure fire method for leaving you poor and with a complete waste of a website.

Oh? So now you want to know how not to get ripped off? Interesting, but ok…I’ll try to help. How about getting involved in the web design process. How about finding a company that actually approaches your website as a marketing tool rather than just a pretty…or not so pretty…brochure? How about reading a little about what makes a website successful? How about getting many opinions on what you need?

Even if your web design company promises everything it should…and most do…it doesn’t mean they will actually deliver on their promises. It’s easy to promise something when the buyer doesn’t know what a good result will look like anyway.

How do you know your web design company is giving you the right advice? See how closely they work with you to provide the result you want. Then maybe, just maybe, we’ll start to see less rip offs in the web design industry. And maybe your website will start making you money, instead of just costing you money.

 

 Bad Website Design: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Working in the web design industry, bad website design is obviously a pet peeve of mine. It’s amazing how many crap websites there are out there, and it’s even more amazing that people are paying small fortunes for these websites.

Small businesses are the most affected by this problem. It’s hard to be an expert in everything and a lot easier for web designers to get away with bad design. From just plain ugly websites, to websites that aren’t usable, I’m constantly bombarded by websites that are awful.

Hence why I created my business to try and remedy this problem. I’m the first one to say that you need to look for a niche when starting a business and yet here I am in the middle of a very competitive industry competing against well established players in both the website design and internet marketing industries!

Why? Because someone has to bring true web design up to the level it should be. I know I have a great product and all I have to do is successfully market it. The skies the limit from there.

So, for all the people losing hope in the internet, there is light at the end of the tunnel! If you’re looking at getting a website, please contact me. I’ll offer all the free advice you need to get started, just please get started the right way.