Designing A Website That Sells

Designing A Website That Sells
By Ahmad Nazri Nordin

Would you buy meat from a grocery store that left the
bad meat in with the good meat or wasn’t clean? Would
you buy a car from a sales lot that had totaled
automobiles on the front lot? I wouldn’t and neither
would you. Your website is your grocery store; your
car lot. You must have an atmosphere that is pleasing
to buyers. One that tells that buyer that you are not
an amateur, but instead a trained, seasoned
professional. Your site is a direct reflection of
your product and that is why that having a well
designed website can make or break your sales.

The first thing to keep in mind when designing your
website, is “surfability”. Take a few minutes a look
around at several web pages. What makes them
appealing? Were there some that you closed out of
immediately? Why? Take notes and do your research.
Keep in mind that when a person visits your site they
have a goal in mind. They are either seeking
information or shopping for a product. Give the
person what they want without having to search for it.
Be sure that all the information on your site is
relevant to your product. Make the buyer think that
they need your product to solve their problem.

Your main page serves a very specific purpose. It
should be an avenue by which the customer can shop
your site. It should be easy to view and load very
quickly. This is your first impression and we all
know that first impressions can either close the deal
or loose the deal. Make it simple. It is best to
have links that are easily viewable by the reader that
will navigate them to where they want to be. Tables
are often a great choice when deciding on a way to
design the main page of your site. Your main page
should load very quickly, chances are if it takes the
page more than ten seconds to load even on a 56k
modem, the customer will click away to save time,
hoping to find the information or product elsewhere.
To increase the loading speed of your main page you
should avoid large graphics or excessive graphics. To
many banners or special effects can cause a page to
load slowly as well.

To make your web site more appealing to the eyes, you
should stick to mild colors. If your site is a
content site where the user will be doing a lot of
reading, it is best to stick to black and white.
Color can be added when using tables, as a way to
brighten up the page, but remember to keep the overall
look of the page professional and appealing to the
audience that will be visiting most often. Since
screen resolutions vary among monitors, it is a good
idea to set the pixels to a standard 800x600. You may
also choose to set the tables in your web page to span
a percentage of the page rather than a set number of
inches. This will be sure to accommodate all screen
sizes. You should remember that a lot of Internet
users will not use the same browser as you, and
therefore you should be sure that your site looks as
good on other browsers as it does your own. You can
do this by downloading several browsers through which
to look at your page.

Be aware of the fact that the overall look of your
website is a way to make money. The appearance of the
site, if designed properly, can be an excellent
marketing strategy for your product or service

How to Choose a Home Business or Job

One thing I constantly see from "newbies" to the work at home world is, "I'm so confused, I don't know where to start!" It's true, there is so much information out there, and not all of it good. Scams are mixed right in with legitimate business opportunities and jobs.

Here is a very simple way to decide on a direction if you are looking for a work at home job or business.

1. What do you enjoy doing? Make a list of every single thing you enjoy, or have an interest in.
   
   
2. What are you good at? Make another list of every single talent or ability you have, or have done in previous jobs. Not just regular "jobs" either, look at the things you do for your family, friends, hobbies, etc.
   
   
3. Play the match game. Can any of your items from List #1 be combined with an item from List #2 and made into a home business? For example if you love to clean, and you're good at organizing, you could become a professional organizer or start a cleaning business. If you love writing, you could write articles and ebooks about how to get organized. (or any topic from List #1 or #2)
   
   
4. Do you want to be your own boss or work for someone else? If you want to work for someone else, start researching jobs that would match the items from your lists. If you want to work for yourself, start researching possible home business options, either with an existing company, or forming your own.
   

There are so many directions you could go in. The hardest part is choosing one. Get clear about what you don't want to do. Hate phone work? Make a note of that. In fact, make a list of every single thing that you don't want to do in a job/biz. Then write a vision of what you DO truly want. If you could wave a magic wand over your life right now, what would you create? What type of work would you be doing? How much money would you be making? Where would you live? How much time would you spend working, and how much time with family? Write all of this down in full detail and refer back to it often. It's your dream, and you need to keep infusing it with life and energy.

Great! You know where you want to end up, now you need to think about the steps that will get you there. Just take it a step at a time, don't get overwhelmed.

It's going to take time to fully realize your vision of working at home. If you're really strapped for cash, consider taking on a part-time job outside the home while you build your work at home job or business. That will relieve the pressure of needing to "create an income right now!" Then you can take your time and build your dream.

Finally, believe you CAN do this! Millions of people are already successfully working from home, and you can too. Just choose a direction and start moving toward it!

5 Key Internet Business Start-up Secrets

Do not let your online business dreams and aspirations die just because you are uncertain of where to start, afraid of making mistakes or have had a bad business experience in the past.

The 5 start up internet business tips you’ll find below will give you the confidence, knowledge and guidelines to lay a firm foundation upon which to build a solid and sustainable online enterprise.

1. Coming up with the ‘Perfect’ Business Idea

Many online entrepreneurs who are looking to start a business will have already thought of and conceptualized their business idea but are struggling with making it a reality for one or other reason.

Well if you are throwing a few ideas around in your mind or haven’t actually come up with a decent concept, a good idea is to start with a subject that you are very knowledgeable with or have a love of.

Obviously the above have to have some marketable value if you intend making money out of your chosen niche.

2. Target Market

Having a great idea is one thing but if there is a limited market for your product or service it’s going to be tough going trying to turn a buck.

Market research carried out in the early stages of the business could have saved many entrepreneurs a lot of time and money flogging a dead horse of a business that never stood a chance of success.

3. Naming your Business

What’s in a name?

A lot you might answer, however, finding an appropriately descriptive, catchy and memorable name is not that easy and a bad one can doom your business to failure and anonymity.

You need to spend some time researching this as, whilst it should be descriptive, your chosen name needs to be available both as a domain name as well as a company name with the appropriate registrars.

It’s important to get the best and most appropriate name available as this could impact on the marketability of your business further down the road.

4. A Business Plan

Boring! I have it all worked out in my head you say.

Well, that’s not good enough – you absolutely need to reduce the plan you have in your head to writing – remember that failing to plan is akin to planning to fail.

Why?...because putting your plan down on paper not only helps stimulate your thought process it also provides a basis upon which to measure your business’ performance.

Whilst you could use a template on which to develop your vision, strategy and plan, don’t forget to include a financial aspect to it to ensure that it is based on profitability and can therefore, be used to measure future performance.

5. Funding

Don’t let your business falter because it’s under funded.

Often growth exerts huge strain on a business’ cash flow and in some cases can bring about the downfall of a good business.

Therefore, ensure that your business has adequate funding not only for growth but also for investment in essential technology that may be required to keep you ahead of your competitors.

To this end, a cash flow budget should always be an important part of any successful business’ arsenal.

Whilst there are many other aspects that go into developing a successful business, the above list of start-up tips and secrets are key to the success of your internet business and should be exploited to maximize its profitability and longevity.