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TOP 7 REASONS TO KEEP
YOUR WEB PAGE SIMPLE
By Tom Falco
http://www.XpectMore.com
1) Fast downloads are important for keeping people at
your site. People will not wait long for pages to download.
Even though there are DSL and 56K modems, you would
be surprised at the amount of people still using old, slower
computers. This is common in many businesses, schools
and organizations.
2) Just because you are a tech wiz doesn't mean your
potential customers are. Keep your site simple and to the
point. All that java script is nice, but if your customer can't see
it or won't wait for it to load, what is the point? If a tree falls in the
forest and no one is there to hear it does it make a sound?
If you have cool java and no one is able to see it is it cool java?
If you must have a big flashy home page, also place a link that allows
the reader to avoid the flash and go directly into the site. Remember:
most will bypass the flashy splash pages and just get into the site.
Unless you are MTV.com or Disney.com, etc. people don't want to see
a show before they enter your site. They are there for a purpose and it isn't
to see all that you learned in java school.
3) Frames are for photographs. Frames are not easily seen on many
older browsers and you are losing a large portion of your potential
customers by not allowing them to experience your site correctly.
Avoid frames if you want customers.
4) Keep the navigation buttons easily available and not confusing.
Don't have too many navigation buttons but do have the ones you
use easily accessible and readily available. Don't confuse people
by making them search the page for navigation. If people don't
want to read your whole home page all at once and they just want
to get going into the site, let them easily enter.
5) Lead them. It is important to lead people to where you would like
them to go. Don't make a page too confusing and if you actually want
them to go from Point A to Point B, state that! If you sell insurance and
you want people to compare rates right away, lead them to that page.
Tell them: "Compare Rates Now!" and make a link readily available.
6) Have your contact information right there for people to see. People
feel more comfortable dealing with others who are easily accessible or
appear to be. By placing your phone number, fax number and address
where it is easily seen, your customers will feel ad ease. Even though
most won't contact you other than through email, it is important to let them
know you are there and you are real. Bricks and mortar always put potential
customers at ease.
7) Ask for the order. This is one of the most important things to remember
when marketing or selling something. Ask the customer for the order. Make
it clear how the person can order or get more information and come right out
and ask for the order. You'll be surprised at how many people will follow
your lead and place the order just because you asked them to!
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
resource box in its entirety at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Falco is editor of XpectMore.com eZine
and also owns: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
To subscribe to XpectMore.com Marketing eZine
mailto:ezine@xpectmore.com?subject=subscribe
or visit: http://www.XpectMore.com
-------------------
How to Easily Update Your
Web Site & Keep It Fresh
By Tom Falco
http://www.XpectMore.com
It's important to keep your website fresh and up-to-date.
Many people visit sites over and over only to find that the
same static message and images greet them each time.
The worst is when there is a proudly placed date at the bottom
saying "last updated July 5, 1989." Talking about drawing attention
to the fact that you don't give a damn!
Keep your site fresh. You don't have to change content daily or
even weekly, but do things to keep it new so that each time a
visitor returns they will feel that there is new content for them to see.
 A great way to do this is use clip art. If your site has the same message and same products or services it is hard to change content, but by placing a pumpkin on the home page or a Christmas wreath next to a special you are having, this updates the site and at least is in
keeping with the seasons!
Autumn is here. Why not place a nice pumpkin or
jack-o-lantern on your site? How about some fall leaves.
Let the visitor know you care and that you are updating your site regularly.
You don't have to be gaudy. Just put one little image in the corner. At holiday time, an elegant holly wreath can spruce up your image and add a smile to
visitors' faces it's easy to do and is worth the few seconds to do it.
You can get clip art on line for free almost anywhere. We offer some holiday clip art for anyone to copy and use at http://www.XpectMore.com/clipart.htm
. It's easy to copy and paste and you can easily store the art when not needed.
Just find the image you like and click your right mouse button, select
"Save Picture As" and rename it and place it in a folder on your hard driveor on a disk or CD. Then all you have to do is insert it on your page or pages when needed.
The clip art adds a fresh image to your website and keeps it up to date in a very unobtrusive way. Most businesses decorate their buildings, lobbies
or offices during the holidays and you can do the same at your website. You can go the one step further by adding seasonal or even patriotic images on
a regular basis. Try putting a flag in the corner of your homepage. Try some office or business images to add pizzazz. It truly is worth the effort.
Your site will be freshened up in seconds and attract repeat visitors.
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
resource box in its entirety at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Falco is editor of XpectMore.com eZine
and also owns: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
To subscribe to XpectMore.com Marketing eZine
mailto:ezine@xpectmore.com?subject=subscribe
or visit: http://www.XpectMore.com
9 Steps to finding a reliable
web hosting company
How to get your site up and running hassle
free
By Tom Falco (c) 2002
We went through a nightmare recently when
we changed internet web hosting companies
and servers.
Our sites were down for days on end and
never worked right after the change! We lost
tons of business and gained lots of wisdom
in the process. I am trying to look at it as a
learning process but after all the business
we lost in one week, it isn't easy.
If you are considering an on-line business or
considering changing hosting companies
here are some tips I learned the hard way:
1) YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. Those
hosting companies offering $99.00 per year
fees or $7.95 per month may be great deals.
But is your business and livelihood worth the
few dollars you'll save over legitimate
companies?
We started our businesses on line using
lower priced hosting companies and actually
had no problems until our recent server change.
But I will never skimp again.
2) DON'T USE A MIDDLE MAN. We have used
one for years. We bought hosting through him
and he in turn bought it from a large company.
We had no control over server changes or things
that happened between the middle man and
the main hosting company. When our middle
man decided to make changes and use other
companies, we had no choice.
Our middle man was never available when
needed and we had to wait days for our emails
to be returned. Trying to reach him by phone
was a nightmare.
His mailing address is a P.O. Box. Enough said.
3) SUPPORT IS IMPORTANT. Make sure the
hosting company has 24/7 support. It isn't
fun trying to get help over the weekends
or late at night and in turn, that only makes
the hold times even longer when they are in.
Get support when you need it. Do NOT use
a hosting company with bankers' hours.
You may not feel you need support. But when
you first change companies, you'll have 100
questions and you'll want the answers now,
not Monday at 9 am Pacific Time.
4) WAIT TIMES ARE IMPORTANT. It is important
to be able to reach the support techs. If hold times
are exorbitant, then that is not a company you
want to deal with. I actually waited 2 hours on
hold one day to ask a simple support question.
I am not exaggerating, I waited 2 hours. I was
that desperate.
Try calling any company before you decide to
do business with them. See how long the wait
time is. If it is too long then they are not for you.
5) TECH SUPPORT NEEDS TO DROP THE 'TUDE.
I can't count how many rude, surly tech support
guys I spoke with. They had no patience and
treated me like a damn fool. They fail to realize
that without people calling tech support they would
be out of jobs.
I guess they realized that they are in their miserable
jobs, answering stupid questions all day, while
most callers are entrepreneurs and business
owners with real businesses to run. Who knows?
I did learn one thing: Women tech support people
are nicer and more patient than men. I never
ran into a rude woman on tech support but 90%
of the men I dealt with had some sort of attitude
problem. I would cringe when a man answered
the phone.
The funny thing was that no one agreed on
anything and none had a clue what they were
talking about. I was told one thing by one
support guy and something else by another
support guy. In most cases my problems were
not solved due to their incompetence.
6) BACK UP FILES. One tech guy took our whole
website down to fix one form. He actually removed
ever single page of our 100 page site and put up
an "under construction" sign in order to fix one
form that was not working right. Talk about a moron.
When I called and asked what happened to all
the pages I was told a hacker got to them! A hacker
who was nice enough to leave an "under
construction" sign up for our visitors.
After explaining to the support guy that one other
support guy was working on forms, the whole
site miraculously reappeared.
Since we had back up files, we could easily replace
his idiotic "under construction" page with our site and
salvage the lost business as best we could.
The forms never did work right after all that
so we changed to a reliable company.
7) GET THE MAIL SERVERS YOU LIKE. We don't
like POP accounts or Outlook Express. We are
used to on-line email accounts and have used
them for years. Some web hosting companies
cannot accommodate us and we found that out
the hard way. Make sure you ask about how the
email will be set up. Is it configured the way you
would like it.
8) FRONTPAGE AND FORMS. Make sure the
hosting company has the proper plug ins for forms
and FrontPage if you are using FrontPage. We had
nightmares with forms until we got a reliable host.
9) DEDICATED SERVERS. Dedicated servers
seem to be the best solution for major on line
retailers. It is more expensive but you are able
control your own destiny. Most people cannot
afford to have dedicated servers and that is
totally understandable. But when your business
grows and you need top notch service. The
dedicated server is the way to go.
So now we can breathe. All is working well and
we are with a "name brand" company who is
there for us. Their tech support is 24/7 and I
have never waited more than a few minutes to
get through. The phone has never rung busy
once.
Our pages even download faster than in the past.
We can see and feel the quality.
We got rid of our middle man and we are in control.
The mail works like we want it to and all our forms
are working perfectly. Business is booming and
I am pleased that the changes have been made
and just wish I had shopped around earlier.
I hope the points I just went over will help everyone
in the future. I wish I could name names here and
warn you of who to avoid, but why start trouble.
Just follow my 9 steps above and you will be
in good shape.
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
resource box in its entirety at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Falco is editor of XpectMore.com eZine
and also owns: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
To subscribe to XpectMore.com Marketing eZine
mailto:ezine@xpectmore.com?subject=subscribe
or visit: http://www.XpectMore.com
Webrings: A great way to
increase web traffic
By Tom Falco (c) 2002
One of the best ways to get links from
other websites is to join webrings.
Webrings tie similar sites together and are
a great way of generating traffic to your
websites. They are very popular with
web surfers.
There are rings for all kinds of subjects and
you are sure to find a ring that will meet your
requirements.
They are called rings because they basically
are one large ring of sites with similar interests.
You put the webring banner on your site
and visitors can either click "next" to go to the
next ring on the list, or they can choose "random"
and go to whichever site comes up.
Most people choose "Ring Hub" where
you'll see the whole lists of sites who belong
to the ring.
The quantity varies. Some rings consist of just
a few select members. Others have hundreds
of sites as members.
The way it works is you join the ring, after
receiving the "Ring Master's" approval. Usually
you have to place the HTML code for the ring
on your site and then they will check it out and
see if you compliment the sites in the ring.
If you have a site about dogs, then great webrings
to join would of course be rings about dogs, pets,
animals, etc. There are many different rings that
one site may fit into.
If you publish an ezine on marketing. You may join
sites on marketing, web design, or ezine rings
that are there to promote ezines themselves.
One site may offer many things.
If your site offers free classifieds, then you can
join free classified rings. If your site also offers
real estate tips, then you may join real estate
rings. The rings are many and various and you
can easily find quite a few that would meet your
criteria.
By linking with similar websites your are helping
each other. This is a proven method and it works.
To join a ring, check out: http://p.webring.com
This is the old Yahoo! ring and it seems to be the
most popular. It is very easy to navigate and stats
are there to show you how your are doing in the ring.
They show who is sending the most visitors from
their sites and who is receiving the most. Most
webring members patronize each others' sites
so this is a great idea if your website is commercial
and you sell items. You have a built in audience
right there among the ring members.
In a future issue we will discuss how to set up the
ring banners. Some people choose one single
page for the ring banners, others put one or two
per page.
The main thing is to join the ring and do it now.
Join as many rings as you can. It will help your
hit counter soar!
This article may be reprinted with permission by including the
resource box in its entirety at the bottom of the article.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Tom Falco is editor of XpectMore.com eZine
and also owns: http://www.TheDiscountPrinter.com
To subscribe to XpectMore.com Marketing eZine
mailto:ezine@xpectmore.com?subject=subscribe
or visit: http://www.XpectMore.com
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