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Self-Starters Weekly Tips
Monday February 3rd, 2003
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INSIDE
THIS ISSUE
1)
Lynn's Tips: Lifestyle of a Business Owner
2) The Secrets to Building a Successful Website
3)
Resource: StickySauce.com
View tips from past issues
online at:
http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com
Free Ebooks, Free Software, Free Design
& Marketing Resources!
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1) Lynn's
Tips
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 Being in business for yourself
is a lifestyle.
Ask yourself why you chose (or why you are choosing) to start your
own business... Did you:
-
Want
more freedom?
-
Want
more time?
-
Want
more money?
Now
ask yourself, Do I have more freedom? Do
I have more time? Am I making more money? And
while you're at it... Am I having FUN?! If
you answered "no" to any of these questions, its time
to go back to the drawing board!
Your
first step is to define what it is you enjoy most, and what
it is that you enjoy least about
your lifestyle as a business owner. The things that you don't enjoy,
or that cause you stress, need to be delegated
or eliminated immediately. Partner with another professional, Barter
for services, Delegate responsibilities to an employee or intern,
or Streamline your operation - there are a number of ways to go
about it, just get it done!
Next,
your vision for the future must be clear.
What is the desired end result? Take money out of the picture altogether,
and figure out where you want to be ten years from now. (Take money out of the
picture??? YES. "Getting Rich" or achieving
financial success is not a clear goal... it is a means of funding
your TRUE goals)
From
there, define your short term and long term goals. What will it
take to achieve your desired results? How long will it take? Create
an associated task list, and start making the appropriate changes
TODAY!
Live,
Love & Learn in all that you do ~
To achieve this is to achieve success!
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If you
missed Mark LeBlanc’s Teleseminar last week, I highly recommend you pick up a copy
of his book: “Growing
Your Business, What You Need to Know – What You Need to Do”. Study his concepts on Defining Statements (Chapter
Two) and “The greatest marketing strategy in the world”
(Chapter Three). Mark will be offering a Teleseminar
again on February 27th. If you’d like to hear Mark
live, and receive a free copy of his book, be there! Email
me if you are interested in more information!
For
those of you that did attend, feel free to join us in the Mark LeBlanc forum at Vision Possible: http://www.marygoulet.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=3
Over
the weekend I also read “The
Greatest Salesman in the World” by Og
Mandino. EXCELLENT book – and endorsed by Mark LeBlanc. Anyone in any type of business can enjoy and appreciate
this piece of work! If you are ready to take your business up a
level NOW –
grab these two books and put their concepts to use immediately!
Wishing
you a profitable week!
~ Lynn
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2) The Secrets to Building
a Successful Website
======================================
By Shelley Lowery
If you're doing business on the Internet, one of the most important
aspects of your success is your web site. If your web site doesn't
look professional, no matter what product you're offering your chances
of success are minimal.
Before you begin, if you've never designed a web page, it would
be wise to become familiar with HTML. (Hypertext
Markup Language.) A great place to start is by using Stickys@uces
tutorials section.
15 Tips for designing a successful
web site:
(1) The main page of your web site should
load in under 15 seconds or less with a 56K modem.
According to two recent surveys, conducted by Forrester Research
and Gartner Group, ecommerce sites are
losing $1.1 to $1.3 billion in revenue each year due to customers
click- away caused by slow loading sites. If a page takes too long
to load, your potential customer will not wait. Ultimately
costing you business.
(2) Make
sure you include proper META tags in the HTML
of each page of your web site. META tags are HTML code that enable the search engines to determine what keywords
are relevant to a specific site. About 80 percent of all web site
traffic originates from the eight major search engines. It would
be a good idea to make sure you've done your homework and fully
understand how to optimize your web pages prior to designing your
site. This will save you a lot of headaches in the long run. Generate
your meta tags with Stickys@uce's meta tag creator.
(3) Be cautious when
selecting your background and text colors. Busy backgrounds make
text difficult to read and draw the attention away from the text.
Always be consistent with your background theme on each page of
your site. Your site should be nicely organized and uniform throughout.
Keep in mind, colors affect your mood and will have an affect on
your visitors as well. Bright colors such as yellow and orange,
cause you to become more cheerful or happy, while colors such as
blue and purple have a calming effect. Dark colors such as brown
and black have a depressing effect. A good rule of thumb would be
to use colors based upon the type of effect you're trying to achieve.
(4) Use minimal animated
graphics. These can be very distracting and can cause your page
to look unprofessional. In addition, animated graphics cause your
page to load more slowly. Fancy graphics won't make the sale.
(5) Your main page should specifically let
your visitors know exactly what you're offering. How many times
have you visited a site and never figured out exactly what they
were selling? If your potential customer can't find your product
or service, they definitely won't waste a lot of time looking for
it. They'll go on to the next site and probably never return. They're
visiting your site for a specific purpose. They want something your
site offers. Whether it is information, a product
or service.
(6) Try to avoid placing
banner exchange banners at the top of your page. These can instantly
take your customers or even be indexed by search engine robots.
Limit the number of banners on your site to no more than two per
page. One is ideal.
(7) Always, include
your contact information on each page of your site and try to reply
to all comments and suggestions within 48 hours. This will help
promote good business relationships. Your business relationships
are the key to your success.
(8) ALWAYS check and
double-check your site for spelling errors and make sure your images
and links are all working properly. If you have several errors,
this will make your site appear to be unprofessional. If you are
designing your site using an HTML editor, use spell check. Proper
grammar is also very important. If you've been out of school for
a while it's probably a good idea to refresh your memory.
(9) Design your site
to be easily navigated. Place your navigation links together at
the top, bottom, left or right side of the page. Use tables to neatly
align your links. If you are planning on using graphic buttons to
navigate your site, keep in mind that with each graphic you add
to your page, it will take that much longer for your page to load.
If you only have a handful of navigational links, using graphic
buttons will be fine. If you have over six links, it would be wise
to simply use text links to keep your load time down.
(10) If you must use frames, use them sparingly.
Frames, if not properly used, can make your site look unprofessional.
Avoid making your visitors have to scroll from side to side to view
your content. This can be very irritating and cause your visitors
to leave. If you must use frames, offer your visitors a choice.
Frames verses No Frames.
(11) Try to keep the
number of clicks required to get from your main page to any other
page on your site down to four. Keep in mind, your visitors may
enter your site from pages other than your main. Always have good
navigational links on every page and place your company logo on
each page.
(12) If you must use Java on your site, use
it sparingly. Offer your visitors a choice. Java verses No Java.
Java can be slow and has a tendency to crash browsers. Try to avoid
using those pop up boxes asking for your visitor's name, etc. Those
pop up messages are very unprofessional and can be very frustrating
to your visitors when they're trying to view your site.
(13) Do not set sound to "autoplay" when someone visits your site. This can be very
distracting.
(14) All web browsers
are not created equally. View your site through different browsers
and screen resolutions so you will see how your visitors will view
your site. Visit:
- Site Inspector
- Check your web pages for HTML validity and browser compatibility.
- NetMechanic -
Provides a variety of free services for your web site including;
browser compatibility testing, graphic file size reduction, link
check, HTML check, load time check, spell check and more.
(15) Continually add new content to your
site. Give your visitors a reason to keep coming back.
The best advice I can offer is to Keep It Simple. The simple, well-designed,
professional looking web sites make the sales and get the visits.
Always strive to learn. Knowledge is the key to success.
About
the Author
Shelley
Lowery is the author of:
Ebook Starter - A complete ebook design kit
=================================
3) Resource:
StickySauce.com
=================================
A
webmasters resource which incorporates all of the webs tools, resources
and information that will allow webmasters, developers and designers
to further enhance their skills, knowledge and website from one
base - Stickysauce.com
Here’s
a website you’ll want to bookmark! StickySauce.com
You’ll
find:
- Programming
Directory
- Web
Page Templates
- Free
Graphics
- Free
Content
- Web
Development Tips
- Web
Design Tutorials
- Promotion
Tools
and
a lot more! If you are designing your own site using Dreamweaver or Frontpage –
check out the Web Design Tutorials based on each of these programs…
they’re great!
******************
IN CLOSING…
It
is my personal mission to bring you an assortment of resources for
your internet business each week in an easy-to-use format. Most
of the resources found in each issue are a result of years of research
that I have done for my own internet business and others, and are
shared with you with my positive recommendation. You can view tips
from past issues online at http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com.
As always, feel free to share this issue with your friends or colleagues!
~ HAPPY MONDAY ~
Lynn
Terry, Editor & Owner
Lynn@WebServiceNetwork.com
Web
Service Network
http://www.WebServiceNetwork.com
Live
Interview on the Entrepreneur Magazine Home Biz Show
Click
Here to Listen: www.MaryGoulet.net/archives_wsn.html
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