Web Site Directories
Posted on May 13, 2008
Inbound links are an excellent method for getting your site known on the internet. Authoritative links are even better. Web site directories are a good source for such links. I’ve listed several of them below. When submitting your site, be sure to check each directory’s rules first. You may also need to ensure that your site isn’t already listed as some directories really frown on multiple submissions.
Are You Following the Rules?
Posted on January 6, 2008
Do your newsletters include an opt-out mechanism to allow recipients to unsubscribe from your newsletter?
Do your newsletters include a physical postal address (either physical location or PO Box)?
These are just two of the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act. Are your email newsletters in compliance?
I get e-mails frequently from well-intentioned companies that are in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act. Can your business afford such a violation? For starters, each violation is subject to fines of up to $11,000! Ouch!! 
In addition, deceptive commercial email is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising.
There are a couple of ways to avoid those penalties. One is to read up on the CAN-SPAM Act. Which would mean monitoring changes and keeping up to date with the changes in the law.
The other is to use an email marketing company such as VerticalResponse or ConstantContact.
Here are just a few of the functions they provide:
- Keeping current with anti-spam laws. Such as the requirement to have an address and an unsubscribe link.
- Reviewing your email for common spam elements.
- Allow recipients to view your newsletter online – for those recipients who can’t see it in their mail program.
- Communicating with major ISPs to help ensure your newsletter doesn’t get bounced or put in a junk folder.
- Campaign tracking – See who opens your newsletter and what links they click. You can also see bounces and unsubscribes.
bwh Web Designs researched several of these companies in 2006. We now use and recommend VerticalResponse. Here’s just a few reasons:
- A reasonable price, based on the number of addresses to which you send a newsletter.
- Ability to maintain completely separate mailing lists.
- Flexibility in newsletter design, including uploading your own HTML to coordinate with your website.
- Ability to send postcards through the U.S. Mail.
You can sign up with VerticalResponse through this link:
Email Marketing from VerticalResponse
Our favorite feature is being able to maintain separate mailing lists. We use one VerticalResponse account to manage mailing lists for 3 separate websites. One of our clients uses it to track customers by geographic location. She can target a newsletter to let people in one area know when she’ll be in their area.
Contact bwh Web Designs today to get your mailing list started!
Do Looks Matter?
Posted on October 5, 2007
There’s some discussion among web designers and developers regarding whether a web site or blog needs to be pretty or not. Do looks matter? Is the design important? After all, content is what’s supposed to matter, right?
Not entirely. There are a number of reasons for having a clean, nice looking, well designed web site and blog.
Consider if you had a physical location for your store. Do looks matter there? Of course they do. You want a clean, attractive, well-organized store. It should be inviting and welcoming. You wouldn’t have a gourmet coffee shop with spills on the counter and trash on the floor. You wouldn’t have plain concrete floors and unfinished walls.
In the same way, your web site looks matter. If you think of your web site as a store, then you should give it the same consideration. Make it inviting and warm. Make it a place where people want to hang out for awhile. Don’t put up flashy signs or bright neon colors. Don’t make it cluttered and messy. Make it easy for your visitors to find what they are looking for. Give them good, clear pictures, too.
By all means, looks matter. Does pretty matter? That could depend on the purpose of your site. There are news sites that have a clean, uncluttered look but would never be considered pretty. And that’s ok. But consider if you’re trying to sell jewelry, or beauty products, or clothing. Your visitors will be more drawn to your site if it looks pretty.
Here’s some things to consider for your web site:
Make your visitors want to visit a while
Give your visitors a nice design that’s easy on the eyes and they may hang around longer. Make it welcoming and inviting.
Make your identity known
Your web site is an extension of your brand. Your brand is very important. It is how people recognize your company. Everything about your company should have a similar look and feel. Otherwise you’re going to confuse visitors to your web site or blog. They may not realize that it is part of your company. In the same way, all the pages of your web site should have a similar look. They don’t have to be exact, but it should always be obvious that you’re still on the same site.
Stand out from the crowd
You don’t need neon lights and bright colors for this. But your web site should be your own. Canned templates won’t usually work for this. There’s no substitute for a good design.
Be consistent
Use your logo, color scheme and general design on every page. You can have variation. But your visitors should never wonder if they’re still on your web site.
Your web site doesn’t have to be beauty contest material, and content is still very important, but make sure your visitors have a pleasant visual experience when they visit your site.
bwh Web Designs specializes in pretty, clean, well-organized web site design. Contact bwh Web Designs today for help with your web site design and marketing.
Is Web Site Marketing Different?
Posted on October 2, 2007
Is there really a difference in how you market a web site? Or can you apply the same principles that are used in marketing a brick-and-mortar store?
Yes and no. In one sense web site marketing is the same since you’re still selling your product or service. The question is, in an analogy comparing a web site to a brick-and-mortar store, where does the web site fall?
Here are some of the suggestions I’ve heard marketers give to web site owners: Make your web site bold with lots of bright colors. You need to have a splash page. And more along the same lines.
All of those suggestions are in line with what a billboard or a magazine ad might be like. But a web site really doesn’t compare to a billboard or magazine ad. Their purpose is to attract attention and draw you in.
Just as you wouldn’t make your store look like a magazine ad, you shouldn’t do that to your web site. Experts in web site marketing agree that content is what really matters.
It isn’t that looks don’t matter, I’ll even address that in another article in this series. Just think about it though. Do you really want bright colors dominating your web site. I’m thinking of the really bright neon colors. The ones that are hard to look at for too long. Save the bright colors for your own billboard or advertising. Don’t blind your visitors with them.
As for splash pages, they don’t really serve a useful purpose. They add an extra page with a graphic image or a Flash animation on it. There usually is no text. And they use a redirect to take the visitor to the main site. Or at least those that haven’t already left.
Internet visitors are on a mission. They have in mind what they need and that is their focus. They generally are also very smart and incredibly impatient. Don’t turn them off before they get a chance to see what you have to offer.
If you’re going to talk with a marketer, make sure they are well-versed in online marketing. In fact, ask them for references. If they tell you marketing a web site is the same as offline marketing – run! While there are similarities, there are also important differences. Your web site deserves the attention of someone who knows about web site marketing.
Contact bwh Web Designs today for help with your web site marketing.
What is Web Site Marketing?
Posted on September 27, 2007
What do we mean by Marketing? The dictionary has this to say:
the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.
Web site or Internet Marketing can be defined similarly. The difference is the medium used for selling. A web site is different from a brick-and-mortar store. There isn’t always a physical location. And there isn’t someone for the visitor to talk to. It is even different from a sales catalog. While there are similarities to a catalog, you can’t sit down and flip through the pages of a web site in quite the same way.
Web sites are unique entities. They have a lot to offer and in many ways are better than a brick-and-mortar store or even a catalog. Ever tried shopping a department store at 3 AM? In your PJs? Can’t be done. Ever wanted to see a larger image of something in a catalog? Or different views? Also can’t be done. A web site can also provide more information than a catalog. Catalogs are space limited because of the cost of ink, paper and postage.
At what point should you begin looking at marketing for your web site? After it’s live? During design? Internet marketing starts with your domain name, and continues all the way to the content on your web site. Unlike a brick-and-mortar store, you don’t have a salesperson to talk with your visitors. Your web site is the salesperson.
Ideally, web site marketing isn’t something you do to your site after it goes live. It’s an integral part of all that is done to and for your website. If you don’t consider web site marketing from the beginning, you’ll spend more money later reworking your web site based on your marketing needs. Which isn’t to say that it can’t be done after the fact. It can. But if you have the luxury of choosing, consider website marketing from day one.
Contact bwh Web Designs today for help with your web site marketing.
Marketing Your Web Site
Posted on August 28, 2007
I’ve had a lot of questions from clients about marketing. Once you have your web site up, you want to bring traffic to your site. That means being found on Google and other search engines. And, more importantly, you want to bring in customers. It’s not really enough that they visit your web site. You want them to buy your product or service. How do we make all that happen?
I have an interest in this topic for 2 reasons. First, I have a service to sell. Second, I really want all my clients to succeed. To that end, I have been researching what it takes to promote your web site.
There is a part of promotion that is the job of the web designer. Once a site is running, there are a number of things that the web site owner can do to make sure their web site gets more traffic. I’ll be addressing many of these things, for both the web designer and web site owner, in this series.
Marketing on the web is different from other marketing formats. I often hear marketers tell web site owners that their home page needs to be flashy, have bright colors, even (shudder) that it should have a splash page. Flashy, colorful, attention-getting printed advertisements or magazine covers may work well. But their purpose is to draw attention to that ad or magazine. That way you’ll look at that ad or magazine. But that analogy doesn’t extend to the web site.
In this series, I’ll be addressing what works and what doesn’t for your home page. I’ll be talking about SEO and Black Hat SEO. I’ll also be presenting some ideas on marketing – both online and offline.
Stay tuned for more on Marketing Your Web Site.
