Hey, you’re new. We like you already! You obviously have great taste! If you like what you read here you’ll probably want to subscribe to our RSS feed (or the audio RSS feed). Stick around and be sure to speak up and post a comment or two! Splash pages are 100% useless to your site […]

He says, she says. What is in the cards for reciprocal links? I have been involved in a correspondence with a link “expert” that works at a very well known SEO firm who says Google is going to eliminate the value of reciprocal links altogether, and have been doing so for the past […]

There are some typical dos and don’ts of building a website. Sometimes we get caught doing something that looks cool without realizing that the audience is really not served properly or that we are limiting our marketing options. When building a website there are some common design practices that are ultimately counter productive to generating […]

If you operate a commercial website don’t clutter your pages with advertisements. Ads may be a great way to generate additional income but they also might be taking away more than they are generating. Everything on your site should be designed to draw the visitor toward the sale. Ads are designed to draw attention as […]

I just got an email from someone asking for assistance with their SEO. They operated a resort website at a popular ski destination in Canada. The website was designed well enough allowing visitors to find condos and town homes at a variety of locations. The email to me stated that the only money they make […]

If you sell products or utilize a shopping cart system in any way, you can easily increase conversion rates simply by improving your shopping cart system. The fewer clicks visitors have to go through to finish the buying process, the less likely they are to abandon their cart midstream and move on. Make the process […]

You go out to the mailbox (the real one, not the electronic one) and sort through the big wad of mail that you have addressed to you. Is it just me, or does it seem like at least 75% of US mail these days is garbage made of numerous solicitations and useless marketing offers? […]

If you wish to sell products from different industries you’re better off creating multiple sites to do the job. Few people will trust a clothing website to sell auto insurance! When going after different markets, it makes good business sense to create a new site for each industry you are targeting. When using this strategy, […]

Don’t try to do too much with a single website. Unless you have a nationally recognizable brand name, such as Wal-Mart, that sells both Barbie dolls and car batteries from the same store, you need to keep your websites focused on a single theme. Focusing your site(s) accordingly will help drive customers to the closing […]

Even though broadband access is increasing, there is still a significant portion of those still connecting to the Internet via dial up. Keep this in consideration when you design your site. Be sure that every page downloads relatively quickly, with minimal lag time. Don’t make your audience wait for you because they won’t.
Using CSS […]

I’ve noticed recently that everyone is putting out a desktop search tool that you can download to help you find things on your computer, much like the “Search” tool for Windows. These tools can also find things in your emails and on the web as well.
Now, I’ve never tried one of these so I’m not […]

According to the Official Google Blog, Google has decided to change the name of its “Google Print” service to “Google Book Search”.
They decided to do this because:
“Well, one factor was all the comments we got about how excited people were that Google Print would help them print out their documents, or web pages they visit […]

Yesterday (Wednesday), Google announced that they have fixed a bug in their Gmail system that allows any hacker to break into other people’s Gmail accounts and read their mail, posing as legitimate users.
“The process for exploiting Gmail was posted to a hacker web site.
The site says Google fixed the problem on October 18, four days […]

So basically, Alibaba.com has “absorbed Yahoo China”, beaten the Chinese branch of eBay, and now has its eye on Google.
Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba.com said, “I call them [Google and Yahoo] sharks in the ocean. We are crocodiles in the Yangtze River. If we fight in the Yangtze River, we have more chances than […]

Online shopping has continued to grow as the number of online purchases have been increasing significantly each year. Online shoppers are also spending more time shopping, as the average has increased from 2.4 to 3.1 hours a week. Will online shopping continue to grow each year forever? From a revenue standpoint, […]

This post is part of a continuing series on the topic of:
Designing a Money-Making Website
Sub-Topic: Creating a Marketing Focused Website that Sells
Display Contact Information
This was mentioned in a previous post but important enough to repeat. Be sure your contact information is easy to find, don’t make your visitors hunt for it. Every page of your […]

Many times, especially when under a deadline, you might forget or overlook some little details when editing or creating web pages. One thing to keep in mind though, is “if you pick one color, pick them all.”
This means that when you choose your colors for text, links, etc., remember to also choose the colors for […]

This post is part of a continuing series on the topic of:
Designing a Money-Making Website
Meeting Your Targeted Audience’s Wants and Needs
Some of the most important aspects of website design, development and usability get left out of a website until it is realized that the lack of those elements may be preventing the visitors from making […]

This post is part of a continuing series on the topic of:
Designing a Money-Making Website
Sub Topic: Building a Professional Website that Achieves Your Goals
Emotive Colors
Colors fuel emotions so be sure the colors you use for your website bring out the emotions that best reach your audience. Integrating color elements effectively can create a more inviting […]