Websites and internet marketing

[Hugmaster 0]

Hi folks

 

As promised, here's my piece on web design and internet marketing. Be aware it's only an introctuion but is still a large chunk of text.

 

I should warn that it does not include search engine information as I'll write a separate article regarding search engines and traffic building.

 

Introduction to Website Design and Internet Marketing

 

Overview

 

The following is an introduction to the huge subject of website design and Internet related marketing. I will cover:

 

Why you need a web presence

How a website fits into your business goals

What program to use

Website hosting and domain names

The “most wanted response”

Look and feel

Building trust and likeability

What not to do

 

This is not intended to be an in-depth, no stone unturned, step by step guide, it’s merely meant to give you some food for thought and the thirst to do some more research.

 

Why you need a website

 

The Internet is fast becoming the medium that people who are looking for products and services use.

 

Getting your company a web presence, whether it’s a one page information and contact page, or a multi-paged all singing, all dancing website, could be an excellent sales generator. It’s certainly one of the most cost effective forms of advertising available to the small business.

 

Apart from word of mouth recommendations, until very recently, business directories like Yellow Pages, seemed to be the preferred method of advertising for the mobile jock,. However, this is becoming less and less cost effective and provides very little flexibility – once your add is there, it’s there, set in stone.

 

A company website provides you with the ability to show your company in it’s best light, adding and taking away content as required and shaping and reshaping to fit your company image.

 

How a website fits your business goals

 

You do have goals for your business don’t you? You don’t, well stop reading now and go watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

 

Your website could very well be the most visible and accessible part of your business. Have your address printed on all your company stationery and other promotional material, make sure past, present and future customers can contact you via email and make sure your site is optimised for the search engines – we’ll come to that later.

 

Where your website fits into your overall plan very much depends on how much time and effort you are prepared to spend. You could have a one-page info site up in an hour or two. If, however, you intend to use your site as your major sales generator, then a great deal of thought will need to be applied to the task. It’s not just a simple case of knocking a little something up and hoping that folks will be impressed, no way! I mean anyone viewing your website, is likely never to have met you, why should they buy from you. If your website can answer that question, then you’ve done a pretty good job.

 

What programs to use

 

To build good solid websites you will need a couple of things.

 

Either an html editor or wysiwyg program. (wysiwyg stands for what you see is what you get).

 

There are several good programs on the market:

 

An HTML editor is suitable for people who have at least a basic grasp of the HTML language, which is the language that websites are designed with. Webweaver2002 gold is an excellent HTML editor and reasonably inexpensive at around £30.. Also Webweaver does not assume prior knowledge of HTML and provides excellent tutorials.

 

Wysiwyg editors work very much the same way as a word processor program like MS Word. You type in your text and use the formatting commands as normal. All the HTML coding goes on behind the scenes and you rarely have to worry about the code. Programs like FrontPage 2000 and Dreamweaver does allow you to edit the code if you want to.

 

FrontPage 2000 is the Microsoft product, so if you’ve used word, you will have no problems with FP2000.

 

Dreamweaver is a Macromedia product and is considered to be the best of the best and is reflected in the price. The latest version, Dreamweaver MX will set you back around £350, but if you have the patience for the learning curve and have the available cash, most folks will tell you that it’s well worth it. You can download a 30 day trial of Dreamweaver MX from www.macromedia.com

 

At the end of the day, it’s personal choice, some puritans will tell you that you can’t beet doing all the code in longhand. I’ve done this and believe me it takes bloody ages. I would advise you to get hold of a book on html and learn the basics, then use either an html editor or wysiwyg program. If anything goes wrong and things don’t look quite right, you have the basic knowledge of html so you can get in there amongst all that code and alter it to your liking.

 

To get tutorials and info on html, go to google and do a search for html tutorials.

 

Ok, a brief word about graphics.

 

You will need some kind of image editor to manipulate photographs and create your logo etc, I’m not going to make any recommendations as I don’t have enough relevant experience to judge impartially. However, I’ve used Jasc Paintshop Pro 7 and found it pretty straightforward to do most of the things you will need, e.g. resizing images. Another good program is Adoby’s Photoshop, although I hear it’s not terribly user-friendly. However, like dreamweaver MX, it’s regarded as being the best of the best.

 

Don’t labour too long and hard over the graphics issue as it will take second place to getting your site content right, just be aware that what images you place on your website should only be there to enhance the overall look and feel. Folks looking for your service want good, believable information, not the latest whizzy whirly animated flash doodars.

 

Website hosting and domain registration

 

Ok, let’s get down to the nitty gritty.

 

First things first, let’s discuss hosting and domain registration.

 

Once your website has been constructed, it will need to be uploaded to a host server/computer. There are two kinds of hosting

 

Freespace – This is usually available from your Internet Service Provider and can be anywhere from 10mb to 100mb in size. For most small businesses, 10mb will be plenty of space. The major drawbacks with freespace are:

 

The company will usually want to place their own adverts all over your site, not very professional and will spoil the overall continuity of your site.

They are usually slow to load into a browser, increasing irritation for the person waiting to view your pages.

Some freespace hosts do not allow commercial websites on their servers.

Search engines do not give priority to freespace websites, and as you will more than likely get most of your visitors from search engines, that’s a major drawback.

 

Paid hosting – this is simply renting space on a server. The amount of space you get and extra’s you receive will depend on how much money you have to spend.

 

Most small businesses will find that between 10mb-50mb will be quite sufficient. You can rent space for a pretty modest sum. My own hosting costs £20 per year for 50mb of webspace and includes some pretty good extras e.g. php and cgi scripting, FrontPage extensions, website statistics, search engine submition and more.

 

Be careful when choosing a hosting company, make sure they have good technical support, simple to understand method of uploading your pages and all the facilities you’re looking for. If your site will be using forms, you will need php or cgi scripting, or the FrontPage extensions enabled. If the website hosting company is a good one, they will be more than happy to explain all of that jargon.

 

Ok, I’ll cut the techie talk. Simply put, if you can afford it, it’s worth paying for webspace.

 

Domain registration

 

Even if you don’t want a website, one of the simplest things you can do to portray a professional image is to get your own domain name. This will enable your customer both past present and future, to email you at yourname@yourcompany.com

 

A .co.uk domain will cost around £10 for two years and should come with the facility to create multiple email aliases e.g. sales@yourcompany.com or info@yourcompany.com.

 

Why get a domain? Well just think how your business is going to look to others if they ask for your website address and you mumble, oh erm, ah well, I don’t have a website. It’s not worth making yourself look so unprofessional. Or just as bad – what’s your email address, and you have to say mycompany.myname@freeserve.com – huh? Just who are you representing, yourself or Freeserve.

 

www.me2uweb.com has given me excellent service and good value for money over the last couple of years and I have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending them.

 

The “most wanted response” (MWR

 

This is the first and the single most important thing to consider when developing your web marketing strategy.

 

The most wanted response or (MWR), simply put is the thing you want your visitors most to do. So, what is it: Do you want them to fill out a booking form online, fill out an enquiry form, email you asking for details, or call you direct. Before you do anything else, make sure you have it firmly fixed in your head what the purpose of your website is.

 

Why? Because everything you do as far as your website is concerned will be with your MWR in mind. Every word, every graphic, picture and form must be designed to help you get your MWR, or else what’s the point?

 

So you thought it was easy eh?

 

And does this approach work? You bet it does. The original Big Mix Entertainment website was designed following all of these strategies I’m laying out, and guess what? We not only had tons of enquiries, sometimes 4 or 5 a day, a good proportion of those enquiries turned into firm bookings – What a shame I had to go get a proper job L

 

And when you get your MWR?

 

If someone delivers your MWR, ie they email or submit an enquiry form, respond fast, or sooner if you can manage it. People do not like waiting. Unless you have a damn good reason, you need to respond within 24 hours. If you can respond within an hour, so much the better, you’ll come across as professional and customer focused.

 

The look and feel

 

This part is pretty straight forward to get your head around.

 

Keep it simple.

 

The most common mistake most people make when designing their company website, and this applies as much to designers as Mr average bod like you and me. These people tend to design for themselves and not their customer, it’s the equivalent of internet penis envy J

 

“Oh look what I can do” flash whiz “aren’t I clever” Fizz whir spin.

 

Guess what your potential customer will do? They will probably say “hmmmm very flashy, but how much do they charge.”

 

Keep the look and feel of your site clean, functional, easy to read and don’t overcook the graphics.

 

Here’s a simple test to see if the look and feel is going to annoy or please your visitors. Before you spend agonized late nights on your site, Get someone who knows very little about the internet to take a look at your site, if they can get around it and it all makes sense to them, you’re on to a winner. This will need to be done before you go live with your website. No good expending all that energy only to find that folks get lost as soon as they enter your home page. Also, take a look around the net at other websites, if you find yourself frowning at the monitor, you’ve found one of those @I’m not gonna do that@ things..

 

All of your pages need a consistent look. The same fonts, colours, structure etc.

 

You need to display links to all the important parts of your website on each page. This is because once your pages have been indexed by the search engines, a visitor may not necessarily enter your site on the home page. You need to design your site so you can get to any major section of your site from any other section, without getting lost. If you don’t, what was a potential customer is now frustrated and unlikely to deliver your MWR.

 

Look and feel is a whole subject all of it’s own but those are the basic principles.

 

Building trust and likeability

 

What’s the single most important way you can build trust in your visitors? Simple, always always always tell the truth.

 

Internet shoppers are still a little wary and need as much information as possible to enable them to make an informed decision of whether you’re a good bet or not. So here are some things to include.

 

Personal and company history – This is usually known as the @About Us@ page. Give a little informal details about yourself, your motivation for the work, how you got started, how long the company’s been operating etc. Keep the tone friendly and chatty, as if you were telling someone over a drink.

 

Contact details – make sure you display your contact details on your website, including, email, telephone/mobile, postal address.

 

Not many people know that it is actually a legal requirement for any business with a website to display their postal address. Of course you’re open to junk mail and the like, but hey that’s business. If you’re uneasy about displaying all your contact details on every page, just set up a “contact Us” page. However, you should display at least your email address on every single page.

 

Testimonials – If someone contacts you or complements you on your service, make sure that appears on your website. Don’t forget to ask permission to quote them first. Also it’s a good idea to ask your satisfied customer if they’d be willing to be contacted by a potential customer. This will add extra weight to the testimonial, and to be fare is seldom necessary. Just the fact that you’ve indicated that satisfied customers are willing to talk to potential ones will build enough trust to do the job.

 

See us first – If you have a residency, let your potential customers know so they can come and see your work before they book you. Is also a good little promotional tool to get the punters in the venue.

 

Include prices: there’s a good deal of debate about whether you should include prices. My take on it is, folks will find out soon enough, better to be upfront. Tell them exactly what they get for their money, also inform them of any additional charges, eg, mileage, after midnight charges etc. yes your competition will get to see what you charge, but hey, you do believe you’re good enough don’t you?

 

Keep the tone light – Write in a friendly and enthusiastic manner, don’t stun your visitors with techie talk, and don’t make promises you can’t deliver.

 

Also, keep blocks of text short and well spaced out. Computer monitors are hard on the eyes and long blocks of text are difficult to read.

 

You can break large blocks of text by dividing them up into smaller chunks. Use headings and sub-headings to create space between your paragraphs.

 

An effective way of breaking blocks of text up is with the use of bulleted lists. This will not only break up large text blocks, it also serves to emphasise important points.

 

What not to do

 

The following is a brief outline of the most common sales killers as far as the internet is concerned. There are more than I have pointed out here, however we’d be here for an eternity if I listed them all. So here they are then, in no particular order of priority.

 

1 Typos: Nothing will erode your credibility and customer confidence more than typing errors on your pages. The way your site looks should be a reflection of how the business runs. So typos suggests a sloppy business. Get someone to proofread your work before uploading.

 

2 Missing graphics: Similar to typos, suggests sloppiness if all folks get is that little red cross where an image should be.

 

3 Out of date information: If you display a last updated notice, make sure you don’t let more than a couple of weeks go by without altering it to reflect today’s date. If someone sees a page was last updated in January 2002, folks will wonder if the business is still open, or if the info is current. Make sure you schedule regular maintenance of your site to keep your information up-to-date.

 

4 Guestbooks: Don’t bother! Because of the upsurge in Spam email, surfer’s will tend to see a guestbook as a way of getting their email address out of them, it’s too second rate to bother with it. Guestbooks are fine for personal, hobby or fan sites as you’re not selling anything, but as a profit making business it just isn’t going to foster that trust and likeability we were talking about.

 

5 Hit counters: Who gives a fetted dingo’s kidney. Most hit counters can be configured to display any figure you choose. Does Amazon or google display a hit counter? No they don’t, just because you’re a small business, doesn’t mean you have to act like one.

 

6 Frames: If possible, please don’t use frames to build your pages. For those of you who don’t understand frames, they’re a way of displaying more than one page at a time. Eg, a left frame for your menu links and the right frame for the current loaded page. The problems start when search engines index, they don’t do terribly well with frames. Also if someone enters your site on a page other than your home page, they won’t have any indication of where to go next.

 

7 Under construction notices: So who’s site isn’t currently under construction? Websites are a work in progress, ever changing, ever updating. Under construction notices are just too amateurish and will antagonize your visitors. If you’re site isn’t ready for the world, don’t upload it. Any good web hosting company will put up a contact page with your name and email address while your site is being developed.

 

8 Splash pages: These are usually animated movies, usually in Flash format as an introduction to your website, and although they are very impressive, unless you have a broadband connection, they can take an age to upload. Remember what I said earlier about customers being impatient. If you frustrate your visitors they will not arrive at your home page in an open-to-buy frame of mind. Also, once you’ve seen a splash page, that’s it, you’ve seen it, it won’t change and will get very dull after a couple of visits. Splash pages are also ignored by the search engines. I know I keep going on about the engines, but they are that important. Nowadays people who insist on displaying splash pages, give an option to skip and go directly to the home page. So if you’re going to give someone the option of doing it anyway, why bother in the first place?

 

9 Blinking text: Oh god are people still doing this? How annoying is blinking text? Next question, are you able to foot the bill for your visitors new monitor after they have heaved it out of their 10th floor flat? Please please please do not use blinking text…ever!

 

10 Stop talking, involve your visitors: Sure you need to do your sales pitch, but make your site interactive. Let them fill out a form for a quiz, run some competitions, do a poll for the best song ever, anything that will get your visitors involved, they will want to bookmark your site to see what’s new in a few weeks.

 

There are more sales killers, but I’d say it was a book all of it’s own. So if you want to turn your prospective clients into frustrated cringing and mistrustful folks, do any or all of the above.

 

Driving traffic to your website

 

This is a huge subject and not one that can be glibly described in a matter of sentences. I’ve decided to write a separate piece on traffic building strategies for your website. I trust you’ll be patient with me as I really do want to give you the very best information.

 

In closing I’d say you need to set aside a good deal of time for internet marketing and your website. If you do not have the time available, there are folks that will do it for you, from design to marketing to optimising your site for search engines. However, you know your business better than anyone else, so if you can find the time, it really will pay dividends.

 

I’m in a unique position here, in that I’ve both been a mobile DJ for some time, and have also had lots of experience with the subject of internet marketing.

 

I’d be happy to discuss with anyone their needs and requirements. Normally I’d do it for the fun of doing it, however, as I work full time and weird shifts into the bargain, my free time is precious and so I would have to charge for such a service.

 

If anyone feels they don’t have the time or inclination for the process, drop me an email with your contact details and I’ll get back to you at my earliest opportunity..

 

You can reach me at Darren@bigmix.co.uk

 

I’m on a well earned holiday from 20 to 27 of June, but will be back all guns blazing.

 

I hope you’ve found the above information useful, and if you have any points you need clarifying, just ask.

 

Good luck

 

Darren

[Dj SBD 0]

Just a bit-LOL

 

someones worked hard,cheers darren http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/thumbup.gif http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/thumbup.gif

[paula 0]

Very intresting all that. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif

 

 

 

 

 

QUOTE

You will need some kind of image editor to manipulate photographs and create your logo etc, I’m not going to make any recommendations as I don’t have enough relevant experience to judge impartially. However, I’ve used Jasc Paintshop Pro 7 and found it pretty straightforward to do most of the things you will need, e.g. resizing images. Another good program is Adoby’s Photoshop, although I hear it’s not terribly user-friendly. However, like dreamweaver MX, it’s regarded as being the best of the best.

 

 

 

I would suggest adobe photoshop your right it is one of the best & I find it quite easy to get around, also Illustrator.

 

[Tom 0]

Photoshop is the best for images, its industry standard and should be at that price http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

 

For an html editor try notepad http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Hugmaster 0]

Hi tom

 

Lol, note pad is fine if you understand HTML, and bloody hell is it time consuming. Most folks running a business haven't the time or inclination to do all that faffing around. However, I'd say whatever program you're using, a basic grasp of HTML is a must, just in case your chosen program has a fit and you have to make some minor adjustments.

 

Darren

 

Ps I will get around to that article on search engines and getting traffic to your website. We're still unpacking boxes from our house move and so the net and dj related items have been somewhat shoved aside for a week or two.

 

[DjDennis 0]

QUOTE (paula @ Jun 20 2003, 03:49 PM)

Very intresting all that. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif QUOTE You will need some kind of image editor to manipulate photographs and create your logo etc, I’m not going to make any recommendations as I don’t have enough relevant experience to judge impartially. However, I’ve used Jasc Paintshop Pro 7 and found it pretty straightforward to do most of the things you will need, e.g. resizing images. Another good program is Adoby’s Photoshop, although I hear it’s not terribly user-friendly. However, like dreamweaver MX, it’s regarded as being the best of the best.       I would suggest adobe photoshop your right it is one of the best & I find it quite easy to get around, also Illustrator. Hi all http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/042.gif   You can try Paint Shop Pro v8 which is a lot like Photoshop   I will add some items that can come in handy a little later - sorry just too much work here to do it right now   I will be back http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/smile.gif

[MadGutts 0]

The internet standard for web code is HTML.

 

DHTML and JavaScript are more powerful but are not for the faint hearted ! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif

 

To spice up your site and some funky Flash, animations or sound, you will need to have some sort of media integration into your content.

 

When you write your sites, ensure you test it with other browsers!!!!

 

Firefox, Mozilla, netscape and obviously Intenet Explorer are the most common, there are loads out there but you only need a couple to test it.

 

http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/thumbup.gif

[juski 0]

I've not seen any mention of spelling, grammar or punctuation.

 

Make your website stand out from the crowd by:

 

1. Spelling words correctly.

2. Using apostrophe's ;) correctly

3. Making sure every sentence on your website makes sense.

 

If I had a pound for every time I've seen a "Dave's Disco's" style mistake.

 

Profesionel Disco's For Every Ocasion.

"Professional? I doubt it - they can't even spell it!"

 

What next? Advertising in txt spk? ;)

 

http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/1106.gif

 

Remember that your website and other promotional material is all about creating a good impression. Some people (like me for example) aren't impressed by sloppiness and may go elsewhere.

 

Proof-read everything yourself first, then get somebody else to do it.

 

Get everybody you know (and some you don't) to look at your site and ask them for their opinion. Big corporations use focus-groups to establish if a site 'works' long before it even gets published. You can do the same with friends & family (and of course this site).

 

Too many websites have images on them that are incorrectly resized - they either look squashed or pixellated because they've been scaled on the page as opposed to in a graphics package.

 

Don't over-do animation. Animated GIFs are fine in moderation, so go easy on them ;)

 

Broken links... check all your links to external websites (and even your own) on a regular basis to make sure they still work. If you can't be bothered to do that, don't have links.

 

Colours... don't just go for a 'pretty' site. Do your best to make sure it's readable by everybody. Remember that something like 5% of the population are colour blind one way or another. One example of a bad colour choice is red text on a black background. Another might be blue text on a green background... Keep the contrast of your site high (primary colours on white, white or bright colours on dark colours).

 

Loading time. A surprising amount of people still have dial-up internet. Don't put them off your site with massive graphics that might take ages to load.

 

There are lots of other points to consider - such as themes and styling - but if you're involved in your own promotion you should really know a little about the 'rules' of advertising... like minimal use of different fonts & text sizes, colours etc. Sometimes less is more ;)

Edited August 7, 2005 by juski

[ian 0]

QUOTE (juski @ Aug 7 2005, 04:37 PM)

I've not seen any mention of spelling, grammar or punctuation. Make your website stand out from the crowd by: 1. Spelling words correctly.

Don't rule out incorrect spellings completely though. Remember that you need to do well in search engines to make sure people see your site. If there are accepted incorrect spellings (like "skool" in "old skool") then you should include them, otherwise anyone searching for "old skool" instead of "old school" will not find your site.

 

If there are words which people frequently spell incorrectly, you should think about those too. For example, you might want to promote your site for the word "anniversary". You should obviously spell this correctly on your site. However, what about people searching for a DJ for their wedding anniversary who cannot spell as well as you can? If they type "aniversary" or "anniversery" into Google, they won't find your site but will find plenty of others (try it and see). What's the solution? Simple, include the incorrect spellings in your metatags. That way, they won't show up on your web site (so you still look professional) but the search engines will still return your pages for the incorrect spellings too (those that index metatags, at least).

[juski 0]

QUOTE (ian @ Aug 8 2005, 09:59 AM)

QUOTE (juski @ Aug 7 2005, 04:37 PM) I've not seen any mention of spelling, grammar or punctuation. Make your website stand out from the crowd by: 1. Spelling words correctly. Don't rule out incorrect spellings completely though. Remember that you need to do well in search engines to make sure people see your site. If there are accepted incorrect spellings (like "skool" in "old skool") then you should include them, otherwise anyone searching for "old skool" instead of "old school" will not find your site.   If there are words which people frequently spell incorrectly, you should think about those too. For example, you might want to promote your site for the word "anniversary". You should obviously spell this correctly on your site. However, what about people searching for a DJ for their wedding anniversary who cannot spell as well as you can? If they type "aniversary" or "anniversery" into Google, they won't find your site but will find plenty of others (try it and see). What's the solution? Simple, include the incorrect spellings in your metatags. That way, they won't show up on your web site (so you still look professional) but the search engines will still return your pages for the incorrect spellings too (those that index metatags, at least). A very good point, well made Ian :)

[Andy Westcott 0]

When designing your website, don't use JavaScript!

Or at least, if you do, use it as 'bells and whistles' only, and not something the website relies on to function.

(look into the 'noscript' tag option.)

 

This is one of my (many) pet hates - just remember that a fair percentage of surfers disable 'active scripting', including, on occasions, myself, as a security enhancement. Stops all those pop-ups, stops virii being scripted onto your computer...... There are probably 101 good reasons to not run JavaScript, so code your page with those 10 - 20% of surfers in mind.

 

I still occasionally come across high-flying corporate websites which fail to load without JavaScript enabled, or are unnavigable due to the lack of links. The web designers mast have been paid a packet, and still got the basic design so terribly wrong!!

 

OK, rant over. Sorry 'bout that! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html//emoticons/rolleyes.gif

[tommy_pears 0]

SEO and SEM is also a very important factor of website design, its all nice having a flash page but its no good for search engines.

Stick to html and css where possible. However do NOT!!! use one of the "GARUNTEED INCLUSION IN ALL SEARCH ENGINES" sites as these we label u as spam and relly bite your bum later.

if you need any more help feel free to send me an e-mail at discogenie@googlemail.com

 

Tom

[Andy Westcott 0]

I'd like to dispute this line:

"Search engines do not give priority to freespace websites....."

 

That may be true, but they don't give priority to any others, either.

 

It has been shown many times that search engines don't actually give a hoot about the domain name, and whether it it a freespace or not. Also, let's clarify the freespace term:

Freespace, to me, means any of the free hosting services out there, but NOT those provided by your ISP, as these most certainly aren't free - you've paid for it!

 

Freespace sites as I've defined them, may not rank so well simply because of the vast amount of scripting code placed at the top of the page which dilutes the true content somewhat, but that would be the only reason.

 

To sumarise, search engines find sites via links, and don't discriminate between domain names or hosts.

[kevvyb 0]

I am just going to pay somebody else to do it!!

[MobileDisco 0]

Nice info you sound like you know what your doing.