What I Wish I Had Known About Websites When Just Starting My Business

I have been around computers for years, but only really started to embrace websites in the past 5 years.

As I have learnt and grown there is a pile of stuff that I wish I had known about websites when I was first starting out.Recently a number of start-ups have been asking my advice for beginners, so here are a few of the things I wished I had known when I was starting.

1.Domain names and web hosting are two different things

Starting from the simplest things.

Your domain name is just like your registered business name.It is the name of your business on the web.It can be your regular business name or it can be your keyword or keywords.

Your web hosting is the electronic equivalent of the landlord who leases you office space for your business.Your web host is the location where your business lives.

The other big lesson about domain names and web hosts is it pays to shop around.You can and will save thousands per year by doing your own research.Check out the forums and reviews for the most reliable companies with the best prices.Don't take your web developer's word as gospel.Generally they want to sell you their own package (with a huge cut in it for them).

The other thing I wish I had known is to buy more bandwidth, email accounts and domains than you think you will need.1GB storage, 3 emails and only 1 domain will get you nowhere fast and if you are like me you will max it out at the most inconvenient time.

It's not that big a deal to change your hosting.If you find a good one, they will manage the transfer for you, making it all quite seamless.

2.80% of all web designers don't know what they are doing (but will charge you a fortune in the process)

This is the most frustrating thing I have learnt.

Most web designers (especially the ones at the budget end of the market) cannot build a website that will generate good search engine rankings if their life depended on it.They have absolutely no clue about SEO (search engine optimisation) and will sell you designs that are search engine poison.The problem is most of them can talk a good fight and will baffle you with jargon that hides that they have no idea what they are doing.

You may get an attractive site, but it has no way to be found in search engines.Often the sites are all in flash, the keywords are useless and there are no decent metatags.And it generally would have cost the poor business many thousands of dollars to do.

If any of your web designers tell you it will take at least 6-12 months for search engines to find you then run away.A good SEO designer can have you ranking in search engines in less than a week.

If your designer insists they will make all the edits for you and that you can't do it - sack them.They are just trying to keep you hooked in to them.

If your designer insists on building you your own personal programs to run the back end of your database, newsletter or autoresponder - they are ripping you off just to make you stay with them.

If you have been caught out don't panic!You can choose a new web developer to update your site or hire an SEO expert to go over your site and improve things.

3.Good SEO Copy is vital to your website

Your website has 2 audiences - humans and search engines.

Unless you write in a way that search engines like and "get", your human audience will never find you to read your information.But ...if you write only for search engines, then it will appear stilted and unnatural.

You need to write your copy so that it is persuasive to both humans AND search engines.This is an art form and a science that takes many years to master.

Most copywriters are not trained in SEO, so while you may get great persuasive copy for your human readers, you may not get the search engine results you are looking for.A good SEO copywriter will cost you, but they are worth it in terms of business and search engine results.

4.Buy pre-packaged rather than tailor made

Wherever possible buy commercial pre-packaged products for things like your auto-responders, affiliate programs, shopping carts, newsletter broadcasts.

This means that the bugs in the programs generally have been ironed out before you get to them, they work with the features that you want and need, and they are cheaper!

The most critical piece is your auto-responder.You get one shot at choosing the right one, as every time you change your auto-responder program due to tough anti-spam laws, all of your lists must elect to resubscribe to your mailing list.You can kiss up to 75% of your list good bye each time you shift.

5.Akismet and Captcha are your best friends

If you have any forms on your website, comments sections on your blog or other methods of interactivity, insist on some form of human identification such as Akismet or Captcha.

They are the boxes down the bottom that ask you to type in the letters you can see.75% of all comments on blogs these days are spam.Akismet or Captcha reduces the number you see, so you are not manually deleting them every few minutes.

If you don't have something like these on your website and you have a form, expect your email box to attract the attention of spammers when their robots (yes they have their own versions of spiders out looking for vulnerable sites) find your address.

6.Host your own blog on your own website

Blogs are brilliant - but don't be tempted to host your blog on a site such as Wordpress or Blogger.

If you are going to go to the trouble of hosting a blog, do it on your own site (and not just publish to your site).

7.You can learn to do it yourself

There are piles of courses out there to help you learn.

Some are great and some are very expensive wastes of time.Do your research before you sign up for anything and check out some of the free courses available.

About the Author

Ingrid Cliff is a freelance writer and the Chief Word Wizard of Heart Harmony - a writing services studio that helps put your business into words.

For a free copy of the "7 Secrets of Compelling Copy & Powerful Words" visit her website http://www.heartharmony.com.au "> www.heartharmony.com.au .

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• Book Marketing - 3 Ways to Drive Sales Using an Effective Book Cover Design
• What I Wish I Had Known About Websites When Just Starting My Business
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The Poor Affiliate's Guide To Free Website Traffic

Lets face facts; no one wants to pay for every visitor that comes to their website.Of course, pay per click is an excellent aspect of marketing online but this requires a lot of know how and it has high risks.
On the other hand if you use free traffic you are forfeiting all of your precious time.

Since time is not something that we have an unlimited supply of we have another option to getting free traffic to your website which involves affiliating.

Affiliate Marketing
1.
Focus on one large market
The first step is to find a market that has a huge demand.
If you chose a market that has a low demand no matter what you do to promote your website you will never become successful and you will always struggle.
Never be afraid to go after the big markets.As long as there is a high demand you can benefit by taking a little piece and make tons of money.

2.Articles that target the right people
Obviously one of the best ways to get traffic to your website is to write articles.
One of the biggest mistakes that people make when writing articles is that they do not target the correct people for their affiliate offers.

In order for you to avoid this make sure that you pick out keywords that relate back to your site and use them in a strategic way throughout your article.Write the article based on the keywords that you choose and make sure that they relate back to what you are promoting.

In order for you to have tons of free traffic as an affiliate that utilizes writing articles, it is not necessary for you to write tons of articles.You should focus on writing quality articles that people will share with others, link to, and most important click through to get to your website.Remember the old adage that quality is more important than quantity when you are writing your articles.

3.Links
Another technique that will bring your more traffic from search engines is links.
The more inbound links that you have give you more listings on all of the search engines.This then means that more people will see your site thus increasing your traffic.

This is another method that takes some time for you to see traffic but the traffic that you receive is well worth the wait.In order to do this you need to do the following:
Write more quality articles

Comment on other peoples blogs

Write articles that have other websites content and then include a link to your website

4.

Use social networking sites
Social networking sites are one of the best ways for you to get traffic based solely on the fact that many people visit them every day.
Sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube have the people who are interested in purchasing the products that you are marketing and promoting.

Go on these sites and start adding your links, content, and primarily just get involved.This does not have to be the main thing that you do day in and day out but in order to get more people to see your site you need to let them know that it is out there.

All of the above mentioned techniques will increase the traffic to your site which then increases your profit.Make sure that you use these tips to ensure that you have continued success.

About the Author

Melissa is an established online marketer who has learned many tips and techniques about online marketing and she wants to teach you what she knows.

For more information please visit http://www.thesecret2onlinemoney.com

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• 3 Major Facts About Making Money Online
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• Dental Website Designs -- Getting A New Client's Attention Through Search Engines