You are here: Home / Archives for Tips & Tricks

Using Web Hosting Companies

Multiple racks of servers, and how a data cent...

Image via Wikipedia

Choosing the right web hosting company can feel like an insurmountable task. The sheer number of host sites seem to increase everyday. Doing a simple engine search will turn up pages of results. Let’s take a look at a few things to remember when finding the right web hosting company.

A web host brings your site to the World Wide Web. The hosting company owns or leases space on a server that allows clients to make their website active to millions of users worldwide. The most common type of hosting used is a single webpage. Personal sites fit this basic style with perfection. However, a company will likely need something more complex.

For a business who has made going online a priority, selecting a web hosting company is a very important decision. Finding a web host you can rely on is critical to your internet business strategy. It is crucial to think of what you need in a web host, and find one that is reputed to deliver reliable results to satisfied consumers.

Another thing to consider when selecting a web host is bandwidth. Bandwidth, the amount of traffic alloted between your site and visitors to your site, will vary from plan to plan. By making sure you know how much bandwidth you will need, you can better construct the hosting plan that will suit your needs. In general, the larger the business the more potential traffic headed to the site. Hosting sites include companies like FatCow, iPage, and green web host HostPapa.

 

 

Filed Under: Social Media, Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , ,

Companies Providing Electronic Signature Services

Waiting for documents to get signed can slow your business deals substantially. There are so many steps to the signing process (which can take days to complete) that you never know when you can finally close the deal. Even if you were to pay the high price of a courier service, you would still have to wait several hours just to get a signed contract from a client located across town. The delays become even more exaggerated when you deal with clients and partners located in other states and countries. That’s why you should learn more about companies providing electronic signature services.

What Are Electronic Signature Services?

Electronic signatures make it possible for people to send, sign, and receive documents within a matter of minutes. When you use an electronic signature service, you can create a document, send it to the client and receive a copy with their electronic signature on it in less time than it would take for you to contact a courier service to deliver a paper contract.
In addition to faster service, you also get increased security when you use companies with electronic signature services because you do not have to rely on a human to deliver the contract. As long as you choose a company with reliable security features, you can send and receive documents without worrying that someone has peaked at your private information.

Companies That Provide Electronic Signature Services

A quick Google search will show you that there are a lot of companies that offer electronic signature services. Some of those that you might find include:

  • EchoSign
  • Topaz Systems
  • Alpha Trust
  • Access Smart
  • BlueWare

Some of the companies that you find will offer general signature services that are useful for most businesses. If, for instance, you own a small business that sends and receives contracts with vendors around the world, then you could use EchoSign to take care of your needs. If, however, you own a company that works in the health care industry, then you might want to consider a company such as BlueWare. BlueWare has highly specialized software that might meet your needs. Of course, the vast majority of companies will find that a generalized service like EchoSign meets their needs better than a specialized software company.

Features to Look For

When choosing companies that provide electronic signature services, look for the features that mean the most to you. You’ll probably want to make sure that they offer strong security features that will protect your confidential files. You might also ask them how long it takes to send and receive documents to make sure that you choose an option that works fast enough for your business. You might even ask the companies what types of guarantees they can offer to attract you as a client.
Now that you have learned some basic information about companies providing electronic signature services, which features do you think are most important for you?
Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

The Danger of Pop-Ups: Design

Dozens of pop-up ads covering a desktop. 

Image via Wikipedia

Desperation was once a too familiar companion: your site was in need of visitors. Traffic had dwindled; pages remained unread; and interest had wilted to apathy. Your business was failing, with no sales to commend it and no profits to find. You needed… help.

And you sought it — with affiliations created and secondary support utilized. It was an easy exchange: your pages would be linked to ones more popular than your own, with you merely required to offer the same courtesy. Success would be yours. 

That success came with a heavy price, however — pop-up ads. 

Too often do fledgling web designers try to boost their rankings within search engines by choosing to affiliate themselves with others. The intention is to borrow notoriety, channeling it toward higher user views. This does work… but can demand the use of pop-ups. These ads are ways for allies to attract the attention of guests; but they manage instead to merely flood browsers.
This appeals to no one. 

It is vital therefore that designers try to refrain from relying on affiliate programs that require these types of ads. While color bars, banners, RSS feeds and interstitials are to be expected (and can be used to great effect), pop-ups only serve to frustrate guests. They demand immediate attention, can slow page loads and can even stall out-of-date browsers. It is strongly recommended then that online business owners find alternative methods. 

Design is meant to offer ease, not spark anger. Pop-up ads provide little rewards for readers, tempting them to abandon pages rather than discover what content waits beyond. Avoid these methods. Choose wise affiliations instead.

 

 

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , ,

Web Design: The Rule of Simplicity

New Web site look and feel. 

Image by WSDOT via Flickr

It’s an unexpected greeting: a site opens on your screen, a blur of Technicolor effects and wild images. A background is layered with photographs; a cursor is trailed by a cluster of movements; and embedded videos launch at the same time, blaring out lyrics that offer no relevancy (only annoyance). It’s a rush of sound and primary shades, an assault on both the senses and simple good taste.

You quickly abandon the page — as all visitors do — and decide to return to your own: if only to make sure you’re not committing the same virtual crimes. 

An all too common occurrence within web site design is to drench every frame in effects. The intention is to create a sensory experience, to engage guests with a variety of outlets. This rarely succeeds, however. It instead makes browsers lag, with loading times lengthened and patience strained. Readers become frustrated by being forced to wait for sound files, movie clips and more to finish loading — and will often simply leave to seek information elsewhere. 

It’s important then to limit the use of graphics and other formats. These should be offered sparingly, able to create an impact through their infrequency (rather than overwhelming every page). Each effect should be chosen with care and should be able to give visitors the help they need: supporting content, explaining facts, providing tutorials and more. The occasional photograph will be welcome; having portions of the site dedicated to nothing but pictures, however, will not. 

Web site design is governed by simplicity. Create a look that is tailored to the needs of guests, not indulgence.
Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Tips & Tricks Tagged With: ,

The Importance of Clean Website Design

Have you ever landed on a website that is just plain junk? No coherence, nothing where it seeems like it should be and poorly written content? Chances are good that that has happened a number of time. And the reaction is to immediately click off, regardless of what brought you to the site in the first place. It is a wonder that they even manage to stay up for any length of time for the search engines to find them.

The lesson to be taken away from this is to not do what they do. It should be easy to do, but sometimes software will let you down. So before starting the construction, make sure that the program will do as you expect. If you have the funds available, you may want to think about hiring a web designer to put things together. Make sure they send you samples of their work before getting started.

Having a well-designed site makes a world of difference in terms of drawing in customers. Ease of navigation, products with information at their fingertips, even product reviews are some of the items that will impress a visitor to the site. Avoid the temptation to go overboard with pictures and blaring text. A little here and there to say “hey, check this out!” is OK. Just don’t spam the site. It makes it look unprofessional and can be a turn off to those who just want the facts and nothing but the facts.

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , ,

Internet Success Stories

Since the advent of the Internet, countless online businesses have emerged. While some have failed, many others have been successful, and a few have been revolutionary. These businesses are not only financially successful, but have presented ideas never before seen by the world. Here is a look at a few inspirational Internet success stories.

Plenty of Fish

Plenty of fish was started in 2003 by Markus Frind. Although it had a slow start, it’s now one of the world’s top dating sites. Estimates indicate that the site earns about $10,000 per day in advertising revenue. Frind was long a sole owner of the site and only recently took on additional owners.

Zappos

Zappos is a company that sells shoes online. It was founded by Nick Swinmurn, who also received help from investor and entrepreneur Tony Hseih. Zappos has numerous online competitors, but has nonetheless managed to set itself apart from the crowd. Zappos has reached $1 billion in revenues.

Ebay

Pierre Omidyar was a French-Iranian who immigrated to the United States. He strongly believed in the good of people and thought that buying and selling online could be a profitable and reputable business. Although he had never been to an auction, in 1995 he attempted to set up a site called Auctionweb, on which antiques, computer items, electrical equipment and books were sold. The site was instantly successful, and became the most lucrative auction website on the Internet, eBay.

Pandora

Pandora is an Internet radio station that today has millions of users. Despite its current success, it struggled immensely for years after its 2000 start. Nevertheless, through determination and hard work, it has earned millions and has partners like iTunes and Amazon.

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , ,

Designing Your Online Business Website

There are many things that you need to consider when you are thinking about creating a website for your business. While creating an online website for your business is a great idea because studies have shown that more and more people are shopping online than every before, there are some things that you need to consider.

If you sell a specialty item you need to make sure that you getting your product out to people who would be looking for it. Think of all the key terms that could be linked to your type of business. You need to ensure that the people who are looking for something related to what you are selling are able to find you.

Studies have also shown that if you have advertisements that run near the top of the screen, people are more likely to scan over them because they are so used to seeing pop ups and other advertisements. If you want to post sales have them next to the items that you are selling. Many successful brand names have sales and rather than making a large sign over the entire website, they include a little discount price tag next to the sale item. Another successful way to advertise is to have a tab that is labeled sale items.

Another thing to consider is that people are attracted to bright colors. However, the colors should not be annoyingly bright. Think of some stores that have signiture colors like Old Navy or Taget. If you are shopping online, you are probably more drawn to those colors because they are associated with the store. You need to make sure that they colors that you use are eye catching but not childish or overpowering.

Also consider how you organize your items on the website. Think about how other people would look for your items. Label assortments of similar items. Think about other websites. If they sell a variety of clothes the clothes are grouped in different sections like sweaters, jackets, tshirts, and so on. Make sure that you are organizing your items in a similar way.

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , ,

Using Technology to Better Your Business

If you own your own business then you know about the power of advertising. You have probably dumped thousands of dollars into advertising ensuring that word about your business gets out and reaches as many people as possible. You have probably investing in flyers about your business, you might have also put some money into commercials. There are several ways that you can advertise, but you might be ignoring the most powerful advertising method of all: online advertising

Years ago, the internet and advertising were just starting to take off. Now, millions of people online use the internet to research where they want to go to dinner and where they want to go on vacation. They buy their Christmas gifts online and shop for themselves using the internet. The phone-book and yellow-pages are a dying breed, so why are you still advertising using only them.

Internet advertising is a great way to advertise because you will reach a very broad demigraphic. You may think that only teenagers and young adults use the internet but you would be wrong. It is much faster and much easier for any person to use the internet to look up a certain item than it is to guess what store might sell that item. If you sell a speciality item, they are going to zero in on your store right away.

You are also being given a fairly cheap way to advertise you business. Internet advertising is much cheaper than running a commerical and will reach more people than a newspaper advertisement. The great thing about internet advertising is that once you have put your business online, if you do not see the feed back that you want then you can always remove your webpage. However, it is very unlikely that you will not see the feedback that you want.

Another great thing about online advertising is that you will be able to receive feedback about your service, about other people will be able to see what people are saying about your business. You are basically paying very little for free word of mouth advertising.

Filed Under: Tips & Tricks Tagged With: , ,