Tag Archives: Avoid

How To Avoid The Three Most Common Budgeting Mistakes People Make When Planning a Web Initiative

September 2, 2010

How To Avoid The Three Most Common Budgeting Mistakes People Make When Planning a Web Initiative

Web Design Articles | June 7, 2005

As we all know, times have changed. Websites have become an absolutely fundamental component to nearly any business. But, while most companies set aside money for website development, they often overlook several key components. As a result, they either far exceed their initial budget or are unhappy with their Website’s result.

Many web firms purposely leave these crucial portions of the budgeting process out, so they can ‘hook you’ in the beginning, and then get more money as the process continues. Obviously, this makes creating a budget all the more difficult.

The good news is that there are some guidelines to help you ensure that your web project is a complete success. The following three components of website development are the most overlooked in early development and budgeting phases. Considering these three aspects of website development will help you ensure your website exceeds your expectations, but not your budget.

1. Extended Photography and Artwork.

When budgeting for web projects, companies usually forget to budget for the purchase of professional photography. Your graphic design department at your company or web firm will provide you with an overall website design called the look-n-feel. Typically, their job doesn’t include designing each page of content.

The look-n-feel templates usually have a content area where the implementation team will incorporate content. You will need to include artwork at the top of the page to provide a nice visual to coincide with the content.

Another example of where you would use photography or artwork is where you have a page of content that talks about a unique process your company uses. Spelling out the process in text format is good. A nice visual to represent that process in conjunction with the text is even better. This visual was likely not part of the design team’s original goals when designing the look-n-feel for your site.

Budgeting for extended artwork and photography:

a) When developing your project’s site map, be sure to look at each top level page as its own homepage for a given section. Your website’s homepage has a strategic layout that incorporates a nice balance between design and copy, and so should each top level page. (Top level pages are the initial pages in your site’s main navigation areas.)

b) Once you designate what pages are top level homepages, define overall goals of that page/section. What do you want your visitors to learn about? What’s the strategy for that section? What overall branding and feeling should be conveyed? Document this information and make sure your web or eMarketing firm knows about this additional design work at the outset if they haven’t already talked to you about it.

c) A resource for cost-effective stock photography that we like to use is iStockPhoto.com. iStockPhoto.com has a wide range of royalty-free photography to choose from at very reasonable prices. The only drawback is that you may use a photo that is in-use by another company; therefore, it?s not unique to your company. This is an option you must weigh. Unique photography will cost quite a bit more, but if you are a larger company the expense may be justified. Smaller companies should definitely consider iStockPhoto.com.

2. Copy / Content

There’s nothing more disheartening then getting to the end of your web project and realizing you don’t have enough copy to fill your website. I have personally seen web projects have everything complete other than copy only to watch companies delay completed projects for months while they try to write their own content. Consequently, the project is not only delayed, but the copy is usually short and weak.

Well written copy is essential for any website, because it grabs the reader’s attention and provides cohesiveness throughout the site. It is also essential for search engine optimization and marketing. If you don’t have a copy writer on staff at your company, make sure your web firm understands the importance of good copy and helps you budget for it.

Budgeting for copy writing:

a) When you create your site map, in addition to designating which pages are top level homepages, designate which pages you already have sufficient copy for and which pages you don’t have sufficient copy for.

b) Meet with a professional copy writer if you don’t have one in-house. At the meeting discuss each area of copy that you have, where it will go and what you are missing. Make sure you give them the copy you already have so they can polish it as part of the final deliverable and ensure that all copy is in the same ‘voice.’ Ideally your web or eMarketing firm will have a copy writer on staff to coordinate this within the project and provide strategy recommendations.

c) This process can happen concurrently with the design and development process. There’s no reason to wait until those phases are complete, so start working with a copywriter as soon as you define the overall site map and strategies. This will help ensure that your project finishes on-schedule, which keeps things within budget.

3. Post-Launch Marketing or eMarketing

If there’s anything that should never be left out of any web initiative budgeting process, it’s post-launch marketing or eMarketing. This by far is the #1 mistake companies make when planning their web initiatives. This is also why companies will put up a website and say, “Our website is just a formality. We’ve never receive any leads from it.”

It’s important to understand the overall budgeting required for eMarketing. You must understand the goals of your website and put marketing plans into action that attract and engage your target audience on a regular basis. Not spending money every month on eMarketing is the same as buying a fancy sports car, never performing required maintenance on it, and then calling it a ‘piece of junk,’ because it doesn’t run anymore.

In order to receive value from your website, you MUST nurture the related eMarketing activities on a regular basis. Remember, the website is a tool that facilitates company objectives. Know your objectives and use your website as a tool accordingly.

Budgeting for eMarketing:

a) Be careful when selecting a web firm to help you design and launch your web initiatives. Web firms that boast very affordable website developments costs are so focused on getting your project business that they don’t worry or care about what happens with your initiatives when the project is complete. Most web firms don’t offer eMarketing services, so be sure you investigate before making a decision.

Ideally, you should pick a firm based on its eMarketing focus, skills and experience and not by the ‘prettiness’ of the web projects they’ve done. Remember, anyone can produce a good-looking design, but only an eMarketing firm with a business and marketing focus can show you how to make your web initiatives pay-off.

b) Determine what your website is supposed to do for your company. Are you trying to make sales directly on the web? Do you want leads for your sales team? Once you know what the website ultimate goal is, you can plan to develop tools that engage visitors and have them take your desired action.

Once you know the goals and have the tools to make it happen, you need to determine how much you can afford to spend on each acquisition. You must know your acceptable acquisition cost before you can decide on which eMarketing tools to use. To figure this out, determine the acceptable acquisition cost your company can afford on each customer.

Let’s say that at your company each customer is worth $10,000, and you can afford to spend $500 to get that customer. You then need to determine the acceptable cost per ‘lead.’ In this scenario let’s say that your company’s close rate is 10 percent that is 10 prospects out of 100 engaged becomes a customer. This means that you can spend approximately $50 per lead.

Now, if your yearly budget for eMarketing is $50,000, you can spread that out over the course of the year and create an eMarketing plan to steadily bring-in leads every single month. In this scenario, we can plan to acquire approximately eight customers per month.

Knowing this information will help determine which eMarketing tools and channels to use. We can quickly determine if a particular channel has or doesn’t have the right ‘per lead costs’ and make decisions accordingly.

By considering these three factors when developing a web initiative budgetPsychology Articles, you should be on your way to having a successful website that helps you meet your business objectives without breaking the bank.

About Cowell eMarketing
Cowell eMarketing is a small and innovative eMarketing firm for businesses seeking new ways to attract customers. Cowell eMarketing provides web and eCommerce development as well as ongoing eMarketing services such as eMail marketing and search engine marketing. Visit www.cowellemarketing.com to learn more.

Frank Cowell is a Certified eMarketer (as certified by the International eMarketing Association) and CEO, Founder of Cowell eMarketing. Cowell eMarketing provides web and eCommerce solutions, eMail Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, eMarketing Analytics and eMarketing Consulting services.

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Tips to avoid and elude Google’s Sandbox

May 23, 2010

Tips to avoid and elude Google’s Sandbox

SE Optimization Articles | May 14, 2010

Whenever a new site is launched, Google tries to figure out what this new site is all about. He scans the content and the internal linkage but he can’t determine the site’s theme and topic from that alone. On the other hand, Google knows the authorities in each domain So, before a reasonable amount of quality links from authority pages is not attracted, the site will be sand boxed.

Whenever a new site is launched, Google tries to figure out what this new site is all about. He scans the content and the internal linkage but he can’t determine the site’s theme and
topic from that alone. On the other hand, Google knows the authorities in each domain, so he will ask them for a helping hand. How? Through inbound links,
links pointing from other sites towards yours. So, before a reasonable amount of quality links from authority pages is not attracted, the site will be sand boxed.

What does sandbox mean?
You can consider Google’s sandbox as an extended probation period for your site. A period given to you to prove you’re worthy. Basically, the sandbox is a penalty or devaluation in the Google SERPs of new sites. Most of the time this devaluation will effect only the competitive keywords targeted, as other long tails searches would do just fine and receive high SERPs positions.
Of course, with proper techniques, there are possibilities to avoid or fast elude Google’s Sandbox, as you will see down below.

How do i know if my site has been sand boxed?
You can always use these kinds of tools: Sandbox check tool.
 Or you can go the safer old fashioned way and try some of the following tips:
   
    * do you rank well for wider non-competitive terms?
    * is your site ranking well for a long tail keyword but is way further in SERPs for the same all keyword?
    * are you ranked 1-10 in Yahoo and MSN for a “keywords” search but you’re nowhere in Google?
    * are you ranked in among the first results for a 8-10 keywords matching exactly a posts title?
  
If the answer to all the questions above is yes, then you are facing a “sandbox” problem. You’ll see further down what you have to do in this case.

Can I avoid the Sandbox?
Definitely. Before placing it in the Sandbox, Google gives every new site the initial SERPs boost. If during this short period you manage to “gain Google’s trust” by providing quality and unique content and acquiring a decent number of natural links from other sites, including authorities, you might just skip the probation period. Of course there’s nothing sure here, cause after all we’re talking about Google… But this site for example has never experienced Sandbox, as one of its first articles gained lots of exposure and natural links.
Of course, the best method for avoiding sandbox is to buy an older site (could be expensive though). This will also bring the “age bonus factor” into equation, proving to be useful later on, as we know how much weight does Google put on age in his ranking algorithm.

 My site is in the Sandbox. How can i get out? Help!
 First of all, there’s no need to panic. This “sandbox problem” sounds worse then it is. With a little bit of work and a decent amount of patience, most of the sites will get over it. So, let’s see what every site owner should do once he is sure his site is affected by a devaluation:

    * build links slowly (no more than 10 each week)
    * build quality and most importantly, unique content. Give each page an unique title and description (Meta tags of course). Also, each post should have 250 characters (that’s just my opinion) of unique content at a minimum.
    * don’t get only links pointing towards your home page but also deep links. This helps your site seem less “hollow”. After all, if we’re talking about natural links, it’s more then normal that other sites would link to the posts they like rather than your home page, no?
    * don’t panic and don’t use Black or Grey methods. Anything from spamming to buying links (except buying links inside posts, that would appear to be 100% natural, which are recommended) should be out of the question.
    * get more trusted links. I would not recommend on site wide links (also there are others claiming otherwise), but links inside the content for old and established sites, preferably authorities from your domain.
   
All these methods are just theories gathered from the community. In most cases, sticking to them should get you out of the sandbox, but there’s nothing 100% sure. :)
Anyway, the only real escape from the Sandbox is time. Depending on the competitiveness of your most important keywords, that time can vary from one to six months, with three to four months being the normal duration. In the meantime, continue to improve your site, and be prepared to make a rapid rise once the Sandbox probation ends, cause if you’ve spent the probation period doing the right thingsPsychology Articles, you will…

Article Tags:
Elude Google’s, Google’s Sandbox, Probation Period, Unique Content

Friend call me james and I’m working on directory submission service, article submission sites and social bookmarking site.

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10 Costly Search Engine Mistakes to Avoid

October 7, 2009
10 Costly Search Engine Mistakes to Avoid
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If you have a website then you already know the importance of traffic. Traffic is to Internet marketing as location is to real estate. It’s the only thing that really matters. If you cannot generate targeted visitors to your site, you will not make any sales.

Usually the owner or designer of the website is the person designated to drive traffic to the site. The chief ingredient in generating traffic is the search engine. Of coarse, you can use advertising, but it’s going to cost you. Using the search engines to generate targeted (interested in your product) traffic is the least expensive method known.

Unfortunately, many website owners do not understand the importance of search engine visibility, which leads to traffic. They place more importance on producing a “pretty” website. Not that this is bad, but it is really secondary to search engine placement. Hopefully, the following list of common mistakes, made by many website owners, will help you generate more targeted traffic to your site…after all, isn’t that what you want.

Jeff Casmer is an award winning entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and internet marketing consultant with online sales over $25 million dollars. His www.24hourwealth.com gives you all the information you need to start, maintain, and prosper to create wealth from home in the 21 century.

1. Not using keywords effectively.

This is probably one of the most critical area of site design. Choose the right keywords and potential customers will find your site. Use the wrong ones and your site will see little, if any, traffic.

2. Repeating the same keywords.

When you use the same keywords over and over again (called keyword stacking) the search engines may downgrade (or skip) the page or site.

3. Robbing pages from other websites.

How many times have you heard or read that “this is the Internet and it’s ok” to steal icons and text from websites to use on your site. Don’t do it. Its one thing to learn from others who have been there and another to outright copy their work. The search engines are very smart and usually detect page duplication. They may even prevent you from ever being listed by them.

4. Using keywords that are not related to your website.

Many unethical website owners try to gain search engine visibility by using keywords that have nothing at all to do with their website. They place unrelated keywords in a page (such as “sex”, the name of a known celebrity, the hot search topic of the day, etc.) inside a meta tag for a page. The keyword doesn’t have anything to do with the page topic. However, since the keyword is popular, they think this will boost their visibility. This technique is considered spam by the search engines and may cause the page (or sometimes the whole site) to be removed from the search engine listing.

5. Keyword stuffing.

Somewhat like keyword stacking listed above, this means to assign multiple keywords to the description of a graphic or layer that appears on your website by using the “alt=” HTML parameter. If the search engines find that this text does not really describe the graphic or layer it will be considered spam.

6. Relying on hidden text.

You might be inclined to think that if you cannot see it, it doesn’t hurt. Wrong…. Do not try to hide your keywords or keyword phrases by making them invisible. For example, some unethical designers my set the keywords to the same color as the background of the web page; thereby, making it invisible.

7. Relying on tiny text.

This is another version of the item above (relying on hidden text). Do not try to hide your keywords or keyword phrases by making them tiny. Setting the text size of the keywords so small that it can barely be seen does this.

8. Assuming all search engines are the same.

Many people assume that each search engine plays by the same rules. This is not so. Each has their own rule base and is subject to change anytime they so desire. Make it a point to learn what each major search engine requires for high visibility.

9. Using free web hosting.

Do not use free web hosting if you are really serious about increasing site traffic via search engine visibility. Many times the search engines will eliminate content from these free hosts.

10. Forgetting to check for missing web page elements

Make sure to check every page in your website for completeness, like missing links, graphics, etc. There are sites on the web that will do this for free.

This is just a few of the methods and techniques that you should avoid. Do not give in to the temptation that these methods will work for you. They will do more harm than good for your website.

Not only will you spend weeks of wasted effort, you may have your site banned from the search engines forever. Invest a little time to learn the proper techniques for increasing search engine visibility and your net traffic will increase.

Create Wealth From Home
Jeff Casmer is an award winning entrepreneur, keynote speaker, and internet marketing consultant with online sales over $25 million dollars. His www.24hourwealth.com gives you all the information you need to start, maintain, and prosper to create wealth from home in the 21 century.
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