My 2¢ Worth

s we begin a new year, it might be a good time to take a look at our Web sites. It is often difficult to look at our own sites objectively, but we must if we are to avoid the mistakes we may have made in 2004.

ou see, developing a successful Web site is far more complicated than most people think. It has all the problems of a software development project and all the quality problems of a publishing environment.

ou must have a professional looking Web site. Your Web site is the most important sales tool you have. Your visitor's first impression will almost instantly determine whether or not you're going to make a sale. A professional Web site should be pleasing to the eyes, well organized, easy to navigate and load quickly.

f you are not skillful with HTML and graphics, engage a professional Web designer to create your Web site. This is one investment that will pay off in the long run. Your Web site is your online salesperson. It reflects your business image. An attractively designed site builds sales credibility and trust.

hen you're considering a professional designer, please drop by Paradigm Web Design. I'm sure you'll find our prices to be very competitive and the quality of our work above average, even compared to design firms charging much more.

f you balk at the prospect of hiring a professional Web designer; consider this. As we move into the 21^st century, Web enabled mobile phones and other hand-held Web devices are becoming increasingly more common. In order for you Web pages to display properly (if at all) an these devices, you must move into XHTML and CSS; regular HTML was never meant for these smaller devices. This is generally beyond the scope of the normal small business person designing a site with their favorite WYSIWYG HTML editor.

f your site doesn't display on these devices, you will lose sales! Further, as browsers become increasingly more standards compliant, proper display becomes even more of an issue. There are millions of pages on the Internet today which do not display properly in a standards compliant browser!

ere's wishing you a happy and prosperous 2005.

Feature Article

Getting Off The Advertising And Sales Rollercoaster

by: Charlie Cook charliecook.net

Seeing the results of advertising your business can be like watching a roller coaster. The day you run your ad you see a flurry of activity; your ph0ne starts ringing, your web site traffic increases and/ or potential clients visit your store. Your hopes soar. salës go up. Two or three days pass and the response goes down. You look at the bill for the advertising and your jaw drops. Your hopes descend.

Nancy called me from Portland, Oregon with just this problem. Every time one of her ads appears in a local publication, customers start walking in the door of her home furnishing store. A few days later the number of prospects and salës goes down. Her advertising gets results, but the thousands of dollars she is paying each month is killing her profits. What can she do?

Whether you advertise your consulting business in The Harvard Business Review or your interior decorating service in the Penny Saver, your ad will cost significant dollars.

How can you make your advertising pay for itself?

How can you use advertising to create a STEADY stream of business?

Write Your Ad to Sell and To Generate Leads

Of all the people who could benefit from your products and services, what percentage is likely to buy today? Hopefully a few, but the majority are more likely to need your services tomorrow, next week or next month.

Write your ad to prompt people to buy and if they're not interested in making a purchase, to contact you. When you write your ad:

1. Sell your products or services by selling your solution.
2. Prompt prospects to buy. Include a call to action.
3. Motivate prospects to give you their contact information.

For each person who responds to your ad and makes a purchase today, you should be able to get ten qualified prospects to contact you. Once you have their contact information, you can send them a regular email or postcard for far less than it would cost to run your ad on a weekly basis.

Follow Up On Your Advertising

An ad can be the first step in marketing your products and services but unless you follow up, it may be the last. Its what you do after your ad runs that determines whether you're able to make it pay for itself in the days and months to come.

Let's say your ad works in getting people to visit your web site, call you or come into your store. What's the next step? How can you follow up to increase your salës?

1. Make sure you get their contact information so you can follow up.
2. Whether people stopped by your web site, left a ph0ne message, emailed you or visited your store - follow up promptly. Get back to them within the day, if not sooner. A prospect is most likely to buy or start a profitable relationship when he/she is looking for a solution. Let your leads linger and they'll go stale. If you wait prospects may contact other service providers or stores, and you've given them time to make their purchase through someone else.
3. Respond immediately. Use a ph0ne call or an email to let them know you understand the problem they want solved and that you can help them. Even a personalized autoresponder message will do the job.
4. Market to your in-house list of contacts. If you want people to remember you when they have a need and are ready to make a decision to buy, make sure they think of you as the solution provider. The best way to do this is to regularly provide ideas, tips and information that your prospects want.
5. Create opportunities for personal contact, whether through your print mailings, ezine or web site, you want to prompt prospects to contact you to discuss their needs and / or place their order. Ask them what they want, what they are looking for. When they send you an email, follow up with a call. Tell them how to contact you, how to schedule a personal conversation and then follow up with a call.

Advertising is an expensive ticket to marketing your products and services. Use these strategies to make sure you get your money's worth and you'll find your advertising paying for itself over and over. Instead of getting your thrills from watching your business go up and down, you'll find yourself enjoying the excitement of watching your profits steadily move up.

**************

The author, Marketing Coach, Charlie Cook, helps independent professionals and small business owners attract more clients and increase their earnings with the 5 Principles of Highly Effective Marketing. Sign up for the Free Marketing Guide and the 'More Business' newsletter, full of practical marketing tips at www.charliecook.net

Form "focus" method

One of the things we have seen used a lot on the Web lately is the Form "focus" method. What's it do? It brings the typing cursor right to the input box that you designate. Google.com is one site that does this, and it is very handy to begin typing immediatly.

To automatically focus your forms, add the following code to your page and manipulate the attributes in red to suit your needs:

<body onload="document.thisform.username.focus()">
<form name="thisform">
<input name="username" type="text">
</form>

* Get these syndicated tip feeds for yourweb site, free. *

Second Article

Static Discharge Causes Flaky Damage

by: Stephen Bucaro Bucaro TecHelp

Some time ago I purchased a motherboard, CPU, and memory from a local computer store. The sales person did me the "favor" of plugging the CPU and memory into the motherboard. I held my breath as this was done with no care whatsoever taken to prevent damage from a possible electrostatic discharge.

A static discharge can damage or destroy integrated circuit electronics. The problem is that you may not see a visible spark. You may not know that a static discharge occurred. And, you are lucky if the static discharge totally destroyed the circuit.

Often a component is only damaged and appears to work. This type of damage can produce occasional or frequent errors. This is what technicians call "flaky" because the failure does not occur reliably enough to be able to track it down.

The technician can’t determine if the errors are caused by software or hardware. All they can do is keep changing things and waiting to see if the problem goes away. This is very time consuming and costly.

The proper way to handle computer circuits is to wear a grounded wrist strap. Any electrical charge that builds up on your body is then immediately conducted to ground. But experienced technicians have tricks for controlling static electricity.

One trick is to leave the circuit board laying on top of an antistatic bag or antistatic foam as much as possible. Another is to leave the computer plugged into the AC outlet with the computers power switch off. This places ground on the computers metal case. Then the technician works with one hand always on a metal part of the case. Any electrical charge that builds up on your body is then immediately conducted to ground the same as with a wrist strap.

The important thing is to take static discharge seriously. Don’t stick yourself or someone else with a flaky computer because you were too lazy to take basic care to protect against static discharge.

**************

Copyright©2002 Bucaro TecHelp.
To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter Send a blank email to bucarotechelp-subscribe@topica.com

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