July 2007 Archives
There are two primary tasks involved in building and opening a Web store: planning and implementation.
Planning
Having a successful Web store involves much more than just an "If you build it, they will come" mentality. You aren't ready to get started until you've done a significant amount of planning.
Decide What to Sell
The products that you offer for sale are - of course - a critical factor in ensuring the success of your store. Here are some questions that you should consider when evaluating your product offerings:
1. Uniqueness - Are you offering unique items for sale, meaning that they are either one-of-a-kind or are not offered for sale anywhere else? Or are the products in your store easy to find in other Web stores?
2. Competition - If your products are also available from other Web stores, have you spent time browsing in those stores? Have you compared their prices with what you plan to charge? What is it about your store that will draw customers away from competitors' stores?
3. Profit Margin - For products that you buy at wholesale, is your markup enough to provide you with some profit? For products that you make, will you earn a fair return on the time that you invested? Most merchants aren't trying to run their Web stores as non-profit organizations!
4. Organize Your Products
The ease with which customers can find the products that they're looking for is a critical factor in sales. If you are planning on selling more than one type of product, you need to have planned out the organization of your store prior to building it. You should categorize your products in ways that your customers are likely to look for them, and then plan to place them on pages that reflect those categories. Obviously, a store with thousands of products will require a more advanced organization.
Even great advertising can't replace good organization in helping your store to succeed.
A Picture is Worth...
Your store will be more useful and appealing to customers if you include pictures of each product. You should also consider having an appealing logo on the first page of your store, and perhaps a smaller version of the logo on all other pages. Pictures must be in jpg or gif format. If you have the ability to scan and edit images yourself, you can simply create the images and store them for later. Otherwise, hire a graphic designer to take photographs, or use photographs that you supply, and use them to produce images in jpg format. When you receive the images from the graphic artist, store them on your computer. You'll be able to upload them to your Web store when you're building your store.
Gather Product Information
Knowing what you're going to sell and having pictures of those items is a large part of the preparation for building your store, but you should also gather other information about your products. Having product information on hand will make building your store much faster and less frustrating. Specifically, you should have:
- Product names
- Product descriptions
- Product pictures
- Product prices
- Product SKUs or other tracking numbers if you use that information for inventory and shipping
- Product shipping weight, if you intend to charge for shipping by weight
- Planning Payment, Tax, and Shipping Policies
Once you've planned your products, you need to plan for transaction processing and fulfillment. Specifically:
1. What types of payment methods will you accept in your store? If you're planning on accepting credit cards, how will you process those payments? You can perform offline credit card processing, such as with a POS machine, or you can perform online credit card processing with some e-commerce plans. Any method of credit card processing requires that you have a merchant account and an account with a transaction processing company. Your Verio sales representative can help you sign up for those accounts.
2. How much tax do you need to collect, and from whom? If you are not already an experienced merchant, you need to consult a tax expert who is familiar with tax laws in your jurisdiction. Sales tax on Internet sales is still debated and misunderstood, but generally you need to collect tax from customers in states where your store has nexus - which is defined as a physical presence - even if it is just your office or warehouse. You may also need to collect at a higher rate from customers in your home city or county. You generally do not need to collect sales tax from customers in states where your store does not have nexus. These are just general guidelines and may not apply to your situation-consult a tax professional to make sure that your store complies with the laws of your location.
3. What shipping methods will you offer and how much will you charge? 3000 and 4000 level plans offer real-time UPS shipping charges, and all plans offer many other methods of calculating shipping charges, such as shipping by weight, shipping by currency (price), and charging a base rate plus an additional amount for each product. You should register or contract with a shipping service and find out what you need to know in order to charge the correct amount for each product and shipment.
Implementation
Once you've completed your planning, you're ready to get started with the implementation. Study our hosting plans and find the plan that best meets the needs of your store. Remember that you can start smaller and then upgrade your plan when your business grows, but the additional features in the higher level pans can help your store to grow more quickly. After you've picked a plan, call a CMG sales representative and sign up for that plan. Your account can be active in just a few hours, and your sales representative can help you apply for merchant accounts and credit card processing, too. You can start building your store while you wait for your application to be approved.
Once your account is set up, you'll receive an e-mail message that has a link to the back office of your store. Click on that link and log in with your username and password, and then the store building wizard will walk you through the steps of setting up your store.
Planning
Having a successful Web store involves much more than just an "If you build it, they will come" mentality. You aren't ready to get started until you've done a significant amount of planning.
Decide What to Sell
The products that you offer for sale are - of course - a critical factor in ensuring the success of your store. Here are some questions that you should consider when evaluating your product offerings:
1. Uniqueness - Are you offering unique items for sale, meaning that they are either one-of-a-kind or are not offered for sale anywhere else? Or are the products in your store easy to find in other Web stores?
2. Competition - If your products are also available from other Web stores, have you spent time browsing in those stores? Have you compared their prices with what you plan to charge? What is it about your store that will draw customers away from competitors' stores?
3. Profit Margin - For products that you buy at wholesale, is your markup enough to provide you with some profit? For products that you make, will you earn a fair return on the time that you invested? Most merchants aren't trying to run their Web stores as non-profit organizations!
4. Organize Your Products
The ease with which customers can find the products that they're looking for is a critical factor in sales. If you are planning on selling more than one type of product, you need to have planned out the organization of your store prior to building it. You should categorize your products in ways that your customers are likely to look for them, and then plan to place them on pages that reflect those categories. Obviously, a store with thousands of products will require a more advanced organization.
Even great advertising can't replace good organization in helping your store to succeed.
A Picture is Worth...
Your store will be more useful and appealing to customers if you include pictures of each product. You should also consider having an appealing logo on the first page of your store, and perhaps a smaller version of the logo on all other pages. Pictures must be in jpg or gif format. If you have the ability to scan and edit images yourself, you can simply create the images and store them for later. Otherwise, hire a graphic designer to take photographs, or use photographs that you supply, and use them to produce images in jpg format. When you receive the images from the graphic artist, store them on your computer. You'll be able to upload them to your Web store when you're building your store.
Gather Product Information
Knowing what you're going to sell and having pictures of those items is a large part of the preparation for building your store, but you should also gather other information about your products. Having product information on hand will make building your store much faster and less frustrating. Specifically, you should have:
- Product names
- Product descriptions
- Product pictures
- Product prices
- Product SKUs or other tracking numbers if you use that information for inventory and shipping
- Product shipping weight, if you intend to charge for shipping by weight
- Planning Payment, Tax, and Shipping Policies
Once you've planned your products, you need to plan for transaction processing and fulfillment. Specifically:
1. What types of payment methods will you accept in your store? If you're planning on accepting credit cards, how will you process those payments? You can perform offline credit card processing, such as with a POS machine, or you can perform online credit card processing with some e-commerce plans. Any method of credit card processing requires that you have a merchant account and an account with a transaction processing company. Your Verio sales representative can help you sign up for those accounts.
2. How much tax do you need to collect, and from whom? If you are not already an experienced merchant, you need to consult a tax expert who is familiar with tax laws in your jurisdiction. Sales tax on Internet sales is still debated and misunderstood, but generally you need to collect tax from customers in states where your store has nexus - which is defined as a physical presence - even if it is just your office or warehouse. You may also need to collect at a higher rate from customers in your home city or county. You generally do not need to collect sales tax from customers in states where your store does not have nexus. These are just general guidelines and may not apply to your situation-consult a tax professional to make sure that your store complies with the laws of your location.
3. What shipping methods will you offer and how much will you charge? 3000 and 4000 level plans offer real-time UPS shipping charges, and all plans offer many other methods of calculating shipping charges, such as shipping by weight, shipping by currency (price), and charging a base rate plus an additional amount for each product. You should register or contract with a shipping service and find out what you need to know in order to charge the correct amount for each product and shipment.
Implementation
Once you've completed your planning, you're ready to get started with the implementation. Study our hosting plans and find the plan that best meets the needs of your store. Remember that you can start smaller and then upgrade your plan when your business grows, but the additional features in the higher level pans can help your store to grow more quickly. After you've picked a plan, call a CMG sales representative and sign up for that plan. Your account can be active in just a few hours, and your sales representative can help you apply for merchant accounts and credit card processing, too. You can start building your store while you wait for your application to be approved.
Once your account is set up, you'll receive an e-mail message that has a link to the back office of your store. Click on that link and log in with your username and password, and then the store building wizard will walk you through the steps of setting up your store.
(Part 2 of 2)
As we discussed last time, in the eyes of your user (i.e. customer) usability is a very important aspect of any website. Despite this fact, so many websites out there fail to address usability in their design. Why is this? There is pretty much one reason, heard far and wide from companies large and small:
Usability takes so much time!!
Without a doubt, creating a usable website is a slower process than creating an unusable one. When creating a usable site, a lot of planning goes into the early stages of the project to ensure that the final result meets the goals of not only you, as the client, but also of your users. This can make the first few weeks seem unproductive because you don’t get to look at any pretty pictures (or, what the design department prefers we call them, “comps”), or click through any websites. All you see are long documents with information about goals and requirements and process flows. Yawn.
Of course, when we talk time, we also talk dollars; the added time usability research adds to the bottom line. Because you don’t get to see any of that fun stuff that comes later in the process, usability seems like the best place to cut costs.
However, by skipping ahead to the fun stuff, you miss important work that ensures that the fun stuff actually meets your goals! If you rush into putting a poorly researched site on the web, you will find yourself getting complaints from all sides. Internally, you will find that you don’t have the pages to add the content you need to have on the site, or that you didn’t build in the backend functionality that will make site maintenance easy. You will hear from your customers that they are unable to find the information or complete the process that brought them to your site. Before you realize it, you will have to completely redo your website from the ground up because it wasn’t done right in the first place. When you think about the time and cost associated with a whole new website, it becomes pretty clear that usability is worth it in the long run!
You can always find people out there who will give you a website quick and cheep. However, here at Cornerstone Media Group, we would much rather take a little more time and money to give you a site that you and your customers will be happy with for a long, long time. Your customers will increase your revenues when they find that visiting your site is a pleasure and accomplishes their goals with a minimum of effort.
As we discussed last time, in the eyes of your user (i.e. customer) usability is a very important aspect of any website. Despite this fact, so many websites out there fail to address usability in their design. Why is this? There is pretty much one reason, heard far and wide from companies large and small:
Usability takes so much time!!
Without a doubt, creating a usable website is a slower process than creating an unusable one. When creating a usable site, a lot of planning goes into the early stages of the project to ensure that the final result meets the goals of not only you, as the client, but also of your users. This can make the first few weeks seem unproductive because you don’t get to look at any pretty pictures (or, what the design department prefers we call them, “comps”), or click through any websites. All you see are long documents with information about goals and requirements and process flows. Yawn.
Of course, when we talk time, we also talk dollars; the added time usability research adds to the bottom line. Because you don’t get to see any of that fun stuff that comes later in the process, usability seems like the best place to cut costs.
However, by skipping ahead to the fun stuff, you miss important work that ensures that the fun stuff actually meets your goals! If you rush into putting a poorly researched site on the web, you will find yourself getting complaints from all sides. Internally, you will find that you don’t have the pages to add the content you need to have on the site, or that you didn’t build in the backend functionality that will make site maintenance easy. You will hear from your customers that they are unable to find the information or complete the process that brought them to your site. Before you realize it, you will have to completely redo your website from the ground up because it wasn’t done right in the first place. When you think about the time and cost associated with a whole new website, it becomes pretty clear that usability is worth it in the long run!
You can always find people out there who will give you a website quick and cheep. However, here at Cornerstone Media Group, we would much rather take a little more time and money to give you a site that you and your customers will be happy with for a long, long time. Your customers will increase your revenues when they find that visiting your site is a pleasure and accomplishes their goals with a minimum of effort.
(Part 2 of 2)
As I discussed last time, in the eyes of your user (i.e. customer) usability is a very important aspect of any website. Despite this fact, so many websites out there fail to address usability in their design. Why is this? There is pretty much one reason, heard far and wide from companies large and small:
Usability takes so much time!!
Without a doubt, creating a usable website is a slower process than creating an unusable one. When creating a usable site, a lot of planning goes into the early stages of the project to ensure that the final result meets the goals of not only you, as the client, but also of your users. This can make the first few weeks seem unproductive because you don’t get to look at any pretty pictures (or, what the design department prefers I call them, “comps”), or click through any websites. All you see are long documents with information about goals and requirements and process flows. Yawn.
Of course, when we talk time, we also talk dollars; the added time usability research adds to the bottom line. Because you don’t get to see any of that fun stuff that comes later in the process, usability seems like the best place to cut costs.
However, by skipping ahead to the fun stuff, you miss important work that ensures that the fun stuff actually meets your goals! If you rush into putting a poorly researched site on the web, you will find yourself getting complaints from all sides. Internally, you will find that you don’t have the pages to add the content you need to have on the site, or that you didn’t build in the backend functionality that will make site maintenance easy. You will hear from your customers that they are unable to find the information or complete the process that brought them to your site. Before you realize it, you will have to completely redo your website from the ground up because it wasn’t done right in the first place. When you think about the time and cost associated with a whole new website, it becomes pretty clear that usability is worth it in the long run!
You can always find people out there who will give you a website quick and cheep. However, here at Cornerstone Media Group, we would much rather take a little more time and money to give you a site that you and your customers will be happy with for a long, long time. Your customers will increase your revenues when they find that visiting your site is a pleasure and accomplishes their goals with a minimum of effort.
As I discussed last time, in the eyes of your user (i.e. customer) usability is a very important aspect of any website. Despite this fact, so many websites out there fail to address usability in their design. Why is this? There is pretty much one reason, heard far and wide from companies large and small:
Usability takes so much time!!
Without a doubt, creating a usable website is a slower process than creating an unusable one. When creating a usable site, a lot of planning goes into the early stages of the project to ensure that the final result meets the goals of not only you, as the client, but also of your users. This can make the first few weeks seem unproductive because you don’t get to look at any pretty pictures (or, what the design department prefers I call them, “comps”), or click through any websites. All you see are long documents with information about goals and requirements and process flows. Yawn.
Of course, when we talk time, we also talk dollars; the added time usability research adds to the bottom line. Because you don’t get to see any of that fun stuff that comes later in the process, usability seems like the best place to cut costs.
However, by skipping ahead to the fun stuff, you miss important work that ensures that the fun stuff actually meets your goals! If you rush into putting a poorly researched site on the web, you will find yourself getting complaints from all sides. Internally, you will find that you don’t have the pages to add the content you need to have on the site, or that you didn’t build in the backend functionality that will make site maintenance easy. You will hear from your customers that they are unable to find the information or complete the process that brought them to your site. Before you realize it, you will have to completely redo your website from the ground up because it wasn’t done right in the first place. When you think about the time and cost associated with a whole new website, it becomes pretty clear that usability is worth it in the long run!
You can always find people out there who will give you a website quick and cheep. However, here at Cornerstone Media Group, we would much rather take a little more time and money to give you a site that you and your customers will be happy with for a long, long time. Your customers will increase your revenues when they find that visiting your site is a pleasure and accomplishes their goals with a minimum of effort.
Television ads are often prohibitively expensive for small businesses to produce and air. Magazine and radio ads are less expensive but still require a sizeable investment when part of an ongoing campaign. Although you can spend a lot of money on an Internet campaign, there are many ways to leverage the Internet and gain free advertising for your business. Following are 20 ideas to consider.
Increase your visibility on search engines: Insert keywords that describe your business into the HTML < META > tags on your Web site pages. Repeat these keywords in the text of your Web site's homepage. Strategic use of keywords can put your business name at the top of customers' search results. For more information, see our article "Optimizing Your Site for Search Engines and Directories."
Put your URL on everything: Maximize your advertising efforts by listing your Web site address on everything you do. Print the URL on your company's letterhead, on your business cards, on the front of your building or the door to your office suite. Use the URL in your e-mail signature. List the URL on any print advertising that you do, including phone books, brochures, flyers, and direct mail pieces.
Submit your site to every directory, specialty listing, industry organization, and yellow pages you can find: No matter what industry your business is in, there are online directories, such as Yahoo! Yellow Pages, that you should register with. Many business and industry associations allow you to list your business on their Web site. In addition, there are individuals who maintain popular lists of resources; use Web search engines to find these lists, and then create an entry for your business.
Utilize evangelists: Channel the energy of your most enthusiastic staff and encourage them to promote your company's product as they surf the Web.
Blogs: A Weblog, or blog, is a collection of short articles, essays, or loosely-formatted thoughts, usually written by one individual. Since the 2004 U.S. presidential election, blogs have become extremely popular as both a medium to get your message out and a vehicle for paid advertising. Blogs also encourage reader comments, making them a valuable tool for gathering customer feedback. Companies such as Blogger will host your blog for free. You can also install a blog on your own Web site with free software such as MediaWiki.
Podcasting: Podcasts are audio files recorded in a radio talk show format. By posting podcasts on your Web site and other sites like Apple's iTunes (www.itunes.com), customers can subscribe to your podcasts, download them as soon as they are available, and then listen to them on their computers or portable MP3 devices. The software to create podcasts is free; for more information visit www.podcastingnews.com.
Join online communities: No matter what the topic, there are thousands of people discussing it passionately on the Internet. By contributing to these discussion groups, you can inform your customers and advertise your business..
E-mail lists: Cultivate a list of your customers' e-mail addresses and send them new product announcements, coupons, special offers, and useful information. See our article "Introduction to E-Mail Marketing" for more information.
Get the attention of the press: Pitch news ideas about your industry to local newspapers, radio stations, and television stations. Pitch ideas to Web news sites. Propose that one of your employees be the expert interviewed in the news piece.
Win awards: Research organizations that give awards for the products or services you provide. Apply for these awards and take the process seriously. When you win, make the most of the publicity.
Donate time or resources to a charity: Encourage charitable organizations to promote your business' donations and involvement. Try to get media coverage for the organizations and community causes you champion.
Publish information and reports about your industry: Provide consumers with free information about your business' industry. Invest in potential customers and they will invest in you.
Reciprocal links: Companies such as LinkLeads (www.linkleads.com) help businesses by facilitating an exchange of hyperlinks. By allowing a company to insert links to their products on your site, a company will allow you to insert links to your products on its site.
Reciprocal banner ads: Companies such as 123Banners (www.123banners.com) help businesses by facilitating free banner advertisement swaps. By allowing a company to advertise on your site, they allow you to advertise on theirs. Be sure you retain control over what Web sites carry your ads, and what ads you post on your site.
Coupons: Make coupons available on your Web site and e-mail them to your customers. Encourage them to give the coupons to friends and family.
Free samples of your product or service: Offer free samples of your product or service. Distribute these samples as widely as possible. Register your giveaways with Web sites such as A+ Free Stuff (www.aplusfreestuff.com) that act as a clearinghouse for free products. Before giving something away for free, ask customers to provide their e-mail address or fill out a short survey.
Free classified ads: Use services like Yahoo! Classifieds to post free ads for your products and services. Also consider posting offers for free samples of your products, sweepstakes, and other giveaways.
Excellent customer service: There's no advertising like personal recommendations made between friends and family. The best way to encourage this type of "viral marketing" is to provide excellent customer service. Take the time to properly train and motivate your sales people and do what is necessary to satisfy your customers' needs.
Business alliances and partnerships: Build partnerships with businesses that offer complementary products and services, and then promote each other. Make joint press statements about your industry, your partnership, and your products and services. Make sure your partners provide links from their Web sites to yours.
Ezine: Write an e-mail newsletter, called an ezine, with articles about your industry, your products and services, and related news of interest to your customers. Check out sources such as goarticles.com and ezinearticles.com, which provide free articles you can use in your ezine. Advertise your ezine for free with directory sites such as www.ezine-dir.com.
Not all these ideas may be appropriate for your business. The important thing is to think creatively and experiment. The Internet is an extremely flexible tool that gives your business many avenues for advertisement and enables you to react quickly to customer feedback.
Increase your visibility on search engines: Insert keywords that describe your business into the HTML < META > tags on your Web site pages. Repeat these keywords in the text of your Web site's homepage. Strategic use of keywords can put your business name at the top of customers' search results. For more information, see our article "Optimizing Your Site for Search Engines and Directories."
Put your URL on everything: Maximize your advertising efforts by listing your Web site address on everything you do. Print the URL on your company's letterhead, on your business cards, on the front of your building or the door to your office suite. Use the URL in your e-mail signature. List the URL on any print advertising that you do, including phone books, brochures, flyers, and direct mail pieces.
Submit your site to every directory, specialty listing, industry organization, and yellow pages you can find: No matter what industry your business is in, there are online directories, such as Yahoo! Yellow Pages, that you should register with. Many business and industry associations allow you to list your business on their Web site. In addition, there are individuals who maintain popular lists of resources; use Web search engines to find these lists, and then create an entry for your business.
Utilize evangelists: Channel the energy of your most enthusiastic staff and encourage them to promote your company's product as they surf the Web.
Blogs: A Weblog, or blog, is a collection of short articles, essays, or loosely-formatted thoughts, usually written by one individual. Since the 2004 U.S. presidential election, blogs have become extremely popular as both a medium to get your message out and a vehicle for paid advertising. Blogs also encourage reader comments, making them a valuable tool for gathering customer feedback. Companies such as Blogger will host your blog for free. You can also install a blog on your own Web site with free software such as MediaWiki.
Podcasting: Podcasts are audio files recorded in a radio talk show format. By posting podcasts on your Web site and other sites like Apple's iTunes (www.itunes.com), customers can subscribe to your podcasts, download them as soon as they are available, and then listen to them on their computers or portable MP3 devices. The software to create podcasts is free; for more information visit www.podcastingnews.com.
Join online communities: No matter what the topic, there are thousands of people discussing it passionately on the Internet. By contributing to these discussion groups, you can inform your customers and advertise your business..
E-mail lists: Cultivate a list of your customers' e-mail addresses and send them new product announcements, coupons, special offers, and useful information. See our article "Introduction to E-Mail Marketing" for more information.
Get the attention of the press: Pitch news ideas about your industry to local newspapers, radio stations, and television stations. Pitch ideas to Web news sites. Propose that one of your employees be the expert interviewed in the news piece.
Win awards: Research organizations that give awards for the products or services you provide. Apply for these awards and take the process seriously. When you win, make the most of the publicity.
Donate time or resources to a charity: Encourage charitable organizations to promote your business' donations and involvement. Try to get media coverage for the organizations and community causes you champion.
Publish information and reports about your industry: Provide consumers with free information about your business' industry. Invest in potential customers and they will invest in you.
Reciprocal links: Companies such as LinkLeads (www.linkleads.com) help businesses by facilitating an exchange of hyperlinks. By allowing a company to insert links to their products on your site, a company will allow you to insert links to your products on its site.
Reciprocal banner ads: Companies such as 123Banners (www.123banners.com) help businesses by facilitating free banner advertisement swaps. By allowing a company to advertise on your site, they allow you to advertise on theirs. Be sure you retain control over what Web sites carry your ads, and what ads you post on your site.
Coupons: Make coupons available on your Web site and e-mail them to your customers. Encourage them to give the coupons to friends and family.
Free samples of your product or service: Offer free samples of your product or service. Distribute these samples as widely as possible. Register your giveaways with Web sites such as A+ Free Stuff (www.aplusfreestuff.com) that act as a clearinghouse for free products. Before giving something away for free, ask customers to provide their e-mail address or fill out a short survey.
Free classified ads: Use services like Yahoo! Classifieds to post free ads for your products and services. Also consider posting offers for free samples of your products, sweepstakes, and other giveaways.
Excellent customer service: There's no advertising like personal recommendations made between friends and family. The best way to encourage this type of "viral marketing" is to provide excellent customer service. Take the time to properly train and motivate your sales people and do what is necessary to satisfy your customers' needs.
Business alliances and partnerships: Build partnerships with businesses that offer complementary products and services, and then promote each other. Make joint press statements about your industry, your partnership, and your products and services. Make sure your partners provide links from their Web sites to yours.
Ezine: Write an e-mail newsletter, called an ezine, with articles about your industry, your products and services, and related news of interest to your customers. Check out sources such as goarticles.com and ezinearticles.com, which provide free articles you can use in your ezine. Advertise your ezine for free with directory sites such as www.ezine-dir.com.
Not all these ideas may be appropriate for your business. The important thing is to think creatively and experiment. The Internet is an extremely flexible tool that gives your business many avenues for advertisement and enables you to react quickly to customer feedback.
Visitors to sites are accustomed to using the browser back/forward arrows for navigation and book marking. We all know that Flash sites do not interact with browsers in this way without a little effort on the developer’s end.
While it is commonplace to use the back/forward arrows to navigate through non-Flash sites, other users prefer to use the actual navigation the site has provided for them. For example, lets say you are searching a fairly large site. While searching you would like to return to a previous section. Using the arrows in your browser can be helpful if you don’t recall the name of the previous sections. Now, if you’re in a Flash site that does not take advantage of browser interactivity you will be at a loss. Clicking the back arrow key in a Flash site will actually take you out of the site completely. This is one main reason why web usability consultant Jakob Nielsen states (in his now seven year old report) that Flash: 99% Bad.
When Nielsen wrote that report, Flash was still growing up. Flash has multiple ways of interacting with browsers now. One of the features is to create an all-Flash site that functions like an HTML site. This means that once you are searching through a large Flash site and use your browser arrow keys, they will function as if you are in an HTML site. Using XML and deep linking, a full Flash site can give a user the ability to bookmark a specific section in the site, instead of just the home page. This can add additional accessibility and usability functionality to your Flash sites that make them user friendly and encourage rather than discourage traffic to your site.
While it is commonplace to use the back/forward arrows to navigate through non-Flash sites, other users prefer to use the actual navigation the site has provided for them. For example, lets say you are searching a fairly large site. While searching you would like to return to a previous section. Using the arrows in your browser can be helpful if you don’t recall the name of the previous sections. Now, if you’re in a Flash site that does not take advantage of browser interactivity you will be at a loss. Clicking the back arrow key in a Flash site will actually take you out of the site completely. This is one main reason why web usability consultant Jakob Nielsen states (in his now seven year old report) that Flash: 99% Bad.
When Nielsen wrote that report, Flash was still growing up. Flash has multiple ways of interacting with browsers now. One of the features is to create an all-Flash site that functions like an HTML site. This means that once you are searching through a large Flash site and use your browser arrow keys, they will function as if you are in an HTML site. Using XML and deep linking, a full Flash site can give a user the ability to bookmark a specific section in the site, instead of just the home page. This can add additional accessibility and usability functionality to your Flash sites that make them user friendly and encourage rather than discourage traffic to your site.
It's a fact that most people seldom return to new sites that they discover in their Internet travels. Aside from the obvious Internet resource sites like search engines, newsgroups, and our own home page, we seldom go back to a site for a second look. It's easy to see that some of the most successful sites on the Internet are those that get tons of return traffic. Their traffic grows as new visitors discover it and as the old ones come back for additional visits.
Here's the four biggest reasons people never return to an Internet site for a second look:
1. NO Content
2. NO Change
3. NO Value
4. NO Fun
Let's take a closer look at each one so you understand exactly what I'm talking about.
NO Content
On the Internet, content is king! The sites that make money and get lots of repeat visits are those with great content. Content simply means information that is relevant for the type of visitors that you attract to your site. One of the best examples of a site loaded with content is <a href="http://www.espn.com">ESPN Sportszone</a>. It always amazes me when I visit how easy it is to get lost in all the stories, stats and information. More often than not, I end up spending time looking at stuff that I never intended to look at once I get there. If people can literally "get lost" in your site, that's a sign of good content.
NO Change
I'm amazed at the number of people who do a great job of promoting their sites to generate lots of initial visits but then never change a single thing on their site. This is one of the biggest faults of Internet business owners. If a site doesn't change, why would anyone want to come back for a second look. This is a simple one.
NO Value
If I can purchase your products for the same, or close to the same price from on off-line vendor, what incentive do I have to visit your online site? All consumers are very selfish. They are concerned with one thing only when they surf the net - What's in it for me? Ask yourself that question about the information on your site. If there are not several obvious benefits for your visitors to come in for a look and stop back again, don't expect them to do either.
NO Fun
Most of us still use the Internet, and especially the web, for entertainment. We love to have fun. If you want to get their attention you need to do something that will entertain them. Part of having fun is being involved. People tend to support what they help create. Internet users love to feel as though they are part of the process. Giving your visitors a chance to be part of the process is a great way to liven up your site and your traffic. With all the innovations in technology, making your site fun shouldn't be too hard.
So if your site is beset with any of these major problems, here's a few simple suggestions to help you turn things around:
Add some new information to your site
Building content is a never-ending process. You should be adding to the content on your site at least monthly. If you're challenged to produce new content yourself, then don't. Go online and find some interesting content that you can add to your site. Most people in the information business would love to get some additional exposure for their information on your site. Just ask them if you could add their article or information to your site and give them a return link to their site. It's that easy.
Try to make your site a starting point for your target audience. If you provide some great information and direct them to additional resources that exist online, then they will certainly want to visit your site often. Position yourself as the "expert" they can trust to steer them in the right direction to find the best information available both online and off.
Content is a little like books in a library. A library without any books is not worth a visit. I've never been to a library yet that didn't have books from more than one author. Try to fill the library in your Internet site with lots of books full of information that is of interest to your target audience.
Change your site at least Monthly
Change takes work and since most of us are lazy by nature, it's one of the biggest problems when it comes to generating repeat traffic. Try changing something as simple as the headline on your home page next month and see if anyone notices. You may also want to start a feature of the month on your site. This might be a special product offer, a feature article or story, or perhaps a contest or something for free.
It's also important that when someone visits your page for the first time that they are alerted to the fact that your site will change from time to time. Something as simples as the words "Monthly Contest" tells them that the site will be different next month and invites them back for a second look. The Deals of the Day in the iMALL is another example of a site that changes frequently. Just the name "Deals of the Day" states very clearly that change is part of your site.
Suggest Bookmarking your site
Here's a simple suggestion that you might try: Put a note at the top of one of your pages that simply says, "Bookmark this page for future reference." They may have never considered marking that page, but if you suggest it they just may click that add button. The power of suggestion is a powerful thing and you should not forget that.
Start building a relationship on the very first visit
If you know that most people will visit your site once and then never return, then it only makes sense to collect as much information as you can from them the very first time they visit. This information might be helpful in determining where your target audience is hanging out online, or where they live, or what they want that has to do with your company and/or products.
Start a mailing list.
This one is cheap, easy and powerful. Start a mailing list of visitors to your site. You may use this list to send announcements of changes to your site, your monthly special, or your own newsletter. Let your visitors add their name to your list and be sure to promote it right on your home page or the other busy pages in your site to increase subscribers.
Build Community on Your site
Remember that having fun is important and we all like to feel as though we're involved. Ask your visitors to make contributions to your site or take an active role in the direction of your online business.
So there are a few suggestions to help you build your traffic by getting repeat visits. As the Internet becomes more and more crowded with websites and home pages, it's more important than ever to take a proactive approach to your Internet marketing. If you wait for them to come back, you might be waiting a long time.
Here's the four biggest reasons people never return to an Internet site for a second look:
1. NO Content
2. NO Change
3. NO Value
4. NO Fun
Let's take a closer look at each one so you understand exactly what I'm talking about.
NO Content
On the Internet, content is king! The sites that make money and get lots of repeat visits are those with great content. Content simply means information that is relevant for the type of visitors that you attract to your site. One of the best examples of a site loaded with content is <a href="http://www.espn.com">ESPN Sportszone</a>. It always amazes me when I visit how easy it is to get lost in all the stories, stats and information. More often than not, I end up spending time looking at stuff that I never intended to look at once I get there. If people can literally "get lost" in your site, that's a sign of good content.
NO Change
I'm amazed at the number of people who do a great job of promoting their sites to generate lots of initial visits but then never change a single thing on their site. This is one of the biggest faults of Internet business owners. If a site doesn't change, why would anyone want to come back for a second look. This is a simple one.
NO Value
If I can purchase your products for the same, or close to the same price from on off-line vendor, what incentive do I have to visit your online site? All consumers are very selfish. They are concerned with one thing only when they surf the net - What's in it for me? Ask yourself that question about the information on your site. If there are not several obvious benefits for your visitors to come in for a look and stop back again, don't expect them to do either.
NO Fun
Most of us still use the Internet, and especially the web, for entertainment. We love to have fun. If you want to get their attention you need to do something that will entertain them. Part of having fun is being involved. People tend to support what they help create. Internet users love to feel as though they are part of the process. Giving your visitors a chance to be part of the process is a great way to liven up your site and your traffic. With all the innovations in technology, making your site fun shouldn't be too hard.
So if your site is beset with any of these major problems, here's a few simple suggestions to help you turn things around:
Add some new information to your site
Building content is a never-ending process. You should be adding to the content on your site at least monthly. If you're challenged to produce new content yourself, then don't. Go online and find some interesting content that you can add to your site. Most people in the information business would love to get some additional exposure for their information on your site. Just ask them if you could add their article or information to your site and give them a return link to their site. It's that easy.
Try to make your site a starting point for your target audience. If you provide some great information and direct them to additional resources that exist online, then they will certainly want to visit your site often. Position yourself as the "expert" they can trust to steer them in the right direction to find the best information available both online and off.
Content is a little like books in a library. A library without any books is not worth a visit. I've never been to a library yet that didn't have books from more than one author. Try to fill the library in your Internet site with lots of books full of information that is of interest to your target audience.
Change your site at least Monthly
Change takes work and since most of us are lazy by nature, it's one of the biggest problems when it comes to generating repeat traffic. Try changing something as simple as the headline on your home page next month and see if anyone notices. You may also want to start a feature of the month on your site. This might be a special product offer, a feature article or story, or perhaps a contest or something for free.
It's also important that when someone visits your page for the first time that they are alerted to the fact that your site will change from time to time. Something as simples as the words "Monthly Contest" tells them that the site will be different next month and invites them back for a second look. The Deals of the Day in the iMALL is another example of a site that changes frequently. Just the name "Deals of the Day" states very clearly that change is part of your site.
Suggest Bookmarking your site
Here's a simple suggestion that you might try: Put a note at the top of one of your pages that simply says, "Bookmark this page for future reference." They may have never considered marking that page, but if you suggest it they just may click that add button. The power of suggestion is a powerful thing and you should not forget that.
Start building a relationship on the very first visit
If you know that most people will visit your site once and then never return, then it only makes sense to collect as much information as you can from them the very first time they visit. This information might be helpful in determining where your target audience is hanging out online, or where they live, or what they want that has to do with your company and/or products.
Start a mailing list.
This one is cheap, easy and powerful. Start a mailing list of visitors to your site. You may use this list to send announcements of changes to your site, your monthly special, or your own newsletter. Let your visitors add their name to your list and be sure to promote it right on your home page or the other busy pages in your site to increase subscribers.
Build Community on Your site
Remember that having fun is important and we all like to feel as though we're involved. Ask your visitors to make contributions to your site or take an active role in the direction of your online business.
So there are a few suggestions to help you build your traffic by getting repeat visits. As the Internet becomes more and more crowded with websites and home pages, it's more important than ever to take a proactive approach to your Internet marketing. If you wait for them to come back, you might be waiting a long time.
