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!

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.

Once you’ve started to write your content, you need to put it on your website. No worries, just create a few article links and she’ll be right!

Wrong! This is another way to get visitors to leave your website. You sure are getting good at driving traffic away from your website, eh?

So how do you keep that oh so precious traffic on your website for hours at an end? You structure it properly of course. So what exactly does that mean?

Your website is telling a story. The story starts when the visitor enters your website and ends when they leave. It’s up to you whether the story ends happily for both you and your new customer. Or sadly after the Big Bad Wolf eats Grandma, Little Red Riding Hood, the Wood Cutter, and skips off into the forest with their wallets.

How do you tell the story? By linking the relevant content together in a clear, logical, and easy to follow way. The homepage flows into more useful information, the articles flow into other related articles. And all the time, your website is building a relationship with your visitor.

After all, when you have a relationship with a visitor, it’s much easier to slip a ring on their finger and convert them into a long term customer. To death do you part!

 

 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.

 

 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.

 

 Make it easy for your customers: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

To explain how to make it easy for your customers, I want to share a pleasant online shopping experience with you. This is how it should be done when selling on the internet.

I needed more RAM for my laptop, and on a link from a website I found the best online ram store possible. I selected my region and it talked to me in my currency. It gave me the option of scanning my system to see what was compatible or selecting my computer from a list. I did both in the end and ended up with the same recommendation, as can be expected.

After analysing my system, it presented me with how many free slots for memory I had on my computer, the different combinations I could choose, and how it would effect my computer’s performance. It also had a few common questions about RAM and presented the answers based on my system scan.

I selected what I wanted, and chose my exact country to estimate shipping before having to enter any other checkout details. I then had the total I was expected to pay. I took the recommendation and price and actually tried searching to see if I could get a better deal since I was shipping to another country anyway. I couldn’t even find another decent website. I was also unsure if more RAM would make a difference to my computer’s speed and wanted to read some more information.

I could of walked down the street, found a computer shop, and purchased it from there to get it sooner…but I couldn’t find any nearby with google. I decided I had a great price for it anyway, after searching on amazon.

So I went back, completed my order with a few clicks, and now eagerly await its arrival.

Pending it’s arrival, this was the most painless shopping process I’ve ever had. My only regret is they don’t sell more products as I’m looking for some other components as well.

Is your website that easy for your customers? What steps can you streamline to make it better? Doing this is the key to online success.

[edit] I just checked my order email and they actually sent me step-by-step instructions to install the RAM in a notebook. They exceeded my expectations completely so do you think I will be recommending them to everyone who needs RAM? You bet! [/edit]

[edit] And now that it’s arrived in the expected time it shows this company is really on the ball. I ordered about midnight on Wednesday and it was here on Monday, exactly three business days later, as promised. [/edit]

 

 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.

There is a lot more than development and maintenance for your online web site to be successful. If you’re currently looking for a web site designer, you need to consider some very important aspects right from the outset. A web site needs careful planning and strategy to succeed so you need to start off on the right foot. That’s the big questions, what aspects does your web site need?

Great design
There are many talented web designers ready to make your web site successful. As long as you’ve spent some time on the internet and know what looks good and what doesn’t, you’d think it’d be hard to go wrong on this aspect. Though it’s surprisingly easy to get wrong. I know some very smart people that have stumbled on this first step and wasted a lot of money. However, the biggest mistake is trying to do it yourself and creating an amateurish looking web site that no one looks at.

Usability
Making your web site usable is not always as easy as it seems. It involves the correct positioning of items on a web page so the user can follow a logical flow to the result you want. If you want a sale, you need to lead the customer there. If you want them to contact you, you need to lead them there. But most importantly, you don’t want customers to get frustrated and leave your web site.

Findability
So now you have a professional looking web site that’s usable and all you have to do is attract some visitors. What’s the best way to get traffic? Search engines of course. We call this Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and it involves making your pages just right for the search engines. Your customers type in keywords to find your web site. The trick is to rank well on the keywords they are typing in. And yes it can be a trick, a weaving of art and magic to do well in the search engines. But those in the know can do it consistently to ensure your web site gets exposure.

Combined with this are the many other marketing techniques that go along with your web site development. A web site is nothing if no one sees it, so you need an online marketing plan to make sure your web site is getting the attention it deserves. This should be the most important aspect of your web site maintenance contract. Your web site development company needs to keep marketing your company once the web site is up and running.

Functionality
You are developing your web site for a purpose and it is important to keep that purpose in mind throughout the entire development process. You’d be surprised how many people set out to design an online shop or ecommerce web site and end up forgetting to check if their web site actually sells products. With a web site, you have very little time to attract a visitors attention, wow them with your proposition, and collect their money. You need compelling sales writing to do this and like all of the above, you need to leave it in the hands of a professional.

The internet is the most competitive marketplace in the world. It’s not like a physical store where a customer has to travel to find your competition, a competitor is literally seconds away. You need to make sure all aspects of your web site work together to achieve your goal or you will find yourself another unsuccessful internet entrepreneur.

A final word of advice, it’s difficult to find a company that can handle the full spectrum of these skills and offer you the web site development abilities and online marketing you require. When I work with my clients, I take care of the search engine and functionality aspects and team up with a web site graphic designer to combine all our knowledge in to making the web site a success. And we’re always getting other input to make sure the web site we deliver is of excellent quality.

So be careful out there, the web site development industry is littered with false promises and propaganda. People that say the can do it all and fail miserably. Be smart with your money and your business’ future.