Website Design Tips – To Increase Sales & Increase Profits

When designing a website many people make the mistake of trying to be too clever in the design area and forgetting what a website is supposed to do:

SELL a product and that means:

You don’t need a design that’s a work of art, you need to capture attention and that means getting people to read and take notice of your product or service.

Use these design tips to create a website that will capture your visitor’s attention.

You only get a few seconds so make the most of them.

1. Don’t make the front page to big!

People don’t like scrolling. You should have a small front page with economical artwork and a strong bold text message of the benefits you provide.

What is in it for them?

Make your visitor aware of the advantages of using you.

With many people using lap tops, have a front page that fits in a browser set to 1024 x 768 and shows the entire front page without scrolling.

2. Outline the benefits of using YOU

Your artwork is their as back up, don’t fill the front page with to much clutter.

Make it nice and clean with headings and sub headings to make your visitor take notice and explore your site.

It’s vital that the eyes of your visitor see the key benefits you are offering and this encourages them to click off the front page and explore the site.

A good way of doing this is to offer them:

3. A perceived value product or service FREE

Offer visitors a free newsletter, a report or limited time discount to capture their details and e-mail.

They may not buy your service or product today, but they were interested enough to visit, so may do so in future.

If you capture their email you can database them.

You can then email them regularly and close names that you would otherwise not have had the opportunity to.

Not everyone buys on the first visit, that however doesn’t mean their not interested as they were interested enough to visit your site in the first place.

4. Your Site Must Load Quickly

Your site must load quickly.

If it is over loaded with flash, sound or fancy graphics then it will load slowly and many visitors will simply click away.

Flash intros were big in the nineties, but should be consigned to history!

They are no use whatsoever in helping sell a product or service.

They annoy people and make them click away form your site and lose you a potential valuable prospect.

People are there to get information and buy and you need to give it to them.

They should be focusing on the text and the benefits of your product or service, nothing else.

People buy benefits; they don’t come to look at the design.

The web is NOT an art gallery it’s a sales mechanism.

5. Color

Color psychology is important.

People react to color and you need to keep the following points in mind.

1. Write off a white background (its easiest to read black text on white) rather than reversed white on a color.

2. Colors are a matter of personal choice, but the safest colors are:
Steel grey, Burgundy, Dark Green and Dark blue.

Use complementary and opposing colors from a color wheel if using more than one color.

6. Graphics and pics should be used sparingly

Use pictures and graphics so they don’t over power your text message.
Too many pictures and graphics will focus your visitor’s eyes on them and not your sales message.

Your objective is to make them read the benefits of your service or product and keep them reading.

7. Consistent & Easy Navigation

Navigation should be easy and logical to follow.

On each page, encourage them to contact you, or at least encourage them to give them your email address.

Make sure you do this on every page, you want them to get in touch base ASAP and close them.

8. Text make it easy

Most people don’t like reading long text and you need to keep this in mind.

Use punchy headlines and break the text with sub heads.

All these should stress the benefits of dealing with you and not the reverse ie how wonderful you are, let them decide that for themselves.

Think “you will benefit from” rather than “we provide”

Forget art and get selling!

You will speak to a lot of web design companies that will help you spend your money on clever and pretty designs however you should:
Save your money.

Your website is an online advertisement and you should keep it simple and SELL your product using the above tips.

Online News – An Easy Way to Get Up to Date

Information has become a necessity of present day living. We used to get information from numbers of sources like television, radio, internet and many others. But, one of the best methods to get up to date about the current affairs on any of the topics that are occurring worldwide is through the Internet. With the advancement in such an amazing technology, we can now get full details within a very short period of time. Now, through online news the viewers can update themselves about the latest happenings of the world.

Many of the top news channels have their own web portals that facilitate the individuals to get connected with them anytime without any hassles. These online websites provides information regarding every day incidents that are taking place all over the world. You can easily access these sites with just a one click of the mouse. Some of the channel sites also offer 24 hours service to the people. Users will get informed about the various topics like business, politics, entertainment and many others.

One of the main advantages of such an advanced facility is that the people can up to date themselves anytime and anywhere. It is also the fantastic service for all those people who do not have enough time to watch television or tuning into radio. On the other hand, regular users of internet will find it more convenient as they can access the web portals anytime in their home, office or anywhere else. There are large numbers of news websites are made available for the users that they can view through online.

As per the choices and interests, viewers can easily view their favorite sections. Online news is broadcast after every few minutes or hours. Watching the news through online will not only save the time of the individuals but also up to date them about the newest events.

Accounting Software – Advanced Modules

Working with the wrong accounting software is a game of give and take in most companies. Sometimes the company has to alter processes to accommodate the software’s settings and at other times the company is able to customize the software to work in line with existing processes.

The trick to avoiding this game is to select the right software from the start. The result of selecting and implementing the right software in the beginning is a more automated and streamlined business that can avoid the back and forth game of adjusting processes to work with the software and vice versa. Accounting software available today comes with a number of modules that can be helpful, and if the right modules are selected, a company will gain almost immediate benefits from the new software. Some of the more common modules are:

General Ledger – The foundation of financial software, a general ledger allows users to interface with all functions of the software package. It will keep a record of all transactions, budgets, and other financials. The general ledger imports data from other modules and displays it in an easier to read format. When selecting software with general ledger capabilities, be aware of what reports you need easy access to and look for the best solution.

Sales Order Entry – A sales order entry module allows companies to store and access all of their sales orders in one place. All aspects of processing an order is put in to the system and everything from the shipping address to the available inventory is accessible. To gain the most functionality from a sales order module, it needs to be integrated with other modules, such as inventory management.

When properly configured, a sales order module allows users to complete all steps of the order process in one place. It should also be capable of tracking packages while they are en route to customers using tracking numbers.

Inventory Control – This module is relatively self-explanatory – it allows users to manage the inventory of products through the software. It is usually integrated with sales and purchase order processing modules and is capable of generating reports about inventory supply, sales, customers, accounts, inventory value, and so on.

Job Cost – This module is capable of tracking costs related to jobs and projects in certain industries, such as construction. The main function of job cost modules is to track the cost to date of a project or job and be able to analyze that cost in relation to hours, percent of budget, and so on.

When used properly, job cost modules can provide companies with beneficial information about how profitable jobs that the organization completes are. This module can be used as both a tracking and estimating software and is capable of tracking previous job costs and using real, historical data to estimate costs for similar jobs.

Purchase Order – Purchase order modules handle ordering new products from suppliers. This item tracks what supplies are in stock, how long they will remain in stock, when new supplies need to be ordered, and how much needs to be ordered. A well-integrated purchase order module will track purchase orders from their initial creation to arrival of the new supplies, however some companies do not operate a level to make this much functionality worth the additional money.

Be Smart When You Decide to Start a Small Business Online

The internet has made it possible for more people than ever before to fulfill their dream of starting a small business. All you need is an idea, an internet connection, and someone who is willing to design a webpage for you, and you will be able to call yourself an online entrepreneur. Before you get too excited, you do want to consider the fact that every single year online businesses, especially ones that are less than a year old fail, there are some things you can do to make sure that when you start a small business online that yours will succeed where others have failed.

It is now unusual when people decide that they are going to start a small business online, they assume it isn’t going to cost them anything. While getting the business up and running won’t cost as much as creating a brick and mortar business would, there will still be come expenses, mostly marketing. Before doing anything rash, you are going to want to take a careful look at your personal finances and ask yourself if you are in a position where you will be able to give your online business the launch it deserves.

A common mistake that many would be online entrepreneurs make when they are about to start a small business online is that they don’t take it seriously. They think that just because they have a good idea, that the product is going to sell itself, but this is not the case at all. If you want your online business to be a success story, you are going to have to learn as much as you can about marketing. There are some entrepreneurs who decide to hire a marketing specialist but this can get pricy. Online marketing isn’t difficult to learn, you just have to be willing to spend some time researching the topic. Keep in mind that once you have opened your online website for business, marketing is something that you are going to have to address every single day, especially during the first year.

One of the things you are going to want to keep in mind when you are marketing your online business is that you are going to want gear your marketing specifically to your target audience as opposed to just shooting it out on the web. The best way to identify your target audience is to ask yourself who your ideal customer is going to be.

When you start a small business online it can be a challenging experience, but it is also full of possibility. Every so often, you are going to want to remind yourself to sit back and just savor the incredible journey.