The Creative Design Blog

Archive for July, 2009

Dont Lose Website Traffic Due To Poor Design

by Amy Nutt on Jul.31, 2009, under web design

The design of a website should best represent a company and the service or product they offer. You only have a few seconds to capture a visitors attention; therefore, a poor web design will only lead to poor sales. A badly designed website will only deter visitors from staying on your site. If a visitor is not impressed within the first view seconds, they will easily and quickly move on to another site. This is why it is important to create a design that has a good visual display and appeals to your target audience.

A web design reflects the image of your company. It is important to present the best image so that visitors will come to your site and want to stay there. The longer they stay at a site, the better the chances that they will make a purchase.

The following is a list of tips on creating a quality website design:

- Consistent and Readable Text: Dont use a wide range of text fonts. It looks very amateurish. The size of the text should be easy to read. A standard size 12 is a good choice. Most people prefer the text to be black because it is easy to read.

- Easy Navigation: Make sure that users can easily navigate from one page to another. Make sure they can easily find what they are looking for. It should be clear, include professional headings, and be easy to understand. Having a “site map” is a valuable tool. Make your navigation clear and try not to have any “Page Not Found” error pages.

- Professional Images: Remember what audience you are targeting. Men looking for hunting equipment are not going to want to look at pictures of pink flowers. Professional websites should not use silly images such as an animation of a goofy looking animal that is dancing. Use graphics that will not slow down load time. They should be small and have an “alt” label. Flashing images are very annoying and distracting. You dont want to give users a headache.

- Design Lay Out: Dont have images and texts haphazardly scattered throughout the web page. There should be a consistent order to where images and text are displayed. Everything should be uniform and even. Choppy and inconsistent designs makes a webpage look childish. Also, make sure there is a consistent theme that ties each page together. Totally different designs on each page will confuse visitors as they may think they have gone to a totally different website.

- Technology: If you are using state of the art technology, make sure it does not slow users down. People will usually abandon a site if they have to wait more than 10 seconds or so for a page to load. Dont use a certain piece of technology just because you think it is fun and cool.

- Search Engine Friendly: Make your site compatible to search engines. The robots and spiders must be able to crawl and index your site pages. Include relevant content and targeted keywords.

When your website has bad design, you will lose traffic and thus lose customer sales. You can have the best content and best optimization, but if your site is poorly designed, you will still lose traffic. A customer will most likely never return to a badly designed website. Optimize and design your website to be professional and captivating. Because your website is the face of your company, you need to make sure visitors will click, stay, and purchase. A good web design plays a key role in achieving business success.

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Creating A Proper Text Link

by Julie Newman on Jul.31, 2009, under web design

With the simplicity of creating a website, there has been a large increase in the amount of web pages that are being created. Some of these web pages are receiving frequent visits, yet other are not receiving any at all. many aspects can affect the traffic that is drawn to you site. One of the most important things you should do, which will increase website traffic, is to utilize internal links.

A good internal link, with assist in getting the attention of the search engine crawlers. These will also increase the sites simplicity, making it more user friendly, allowing the user to find content quicker.

The search engine crawlers “creep” around the internet, searching from site to site. When they get to a site they index each page, and try to find out some information about it. The text links you create get the attention of the web crawler, and if properly put together will relay information about your site. Therefore, when you are putting your text links together, you should follow these few simple rules.

1. The services and information that your site offers should be pertinently incorporated in your text links.

2. Link through relevant keywords and not use the infamous CLICK HERE, link that people love to use. This does not serve the same purpose as linking to relevant text.

3. Ensure that your text links are properly working, and remain workings. Always link to something that is pertinent to your chosen keywords and the text you will be linking to. In order for your text link to be successful it needs to provide information about the same topic.

4. You should utilize as many appropriate links as possible, without taking from the text. To assist with the making your link flow, you should not put links into two consecutive words.

If you follow all these tips, you will allow the search crawlers to fins your site and better understand what it is about. This will greatly improve your search engine rankings, and bring more traffic to your web pages. Exceptional and pertinent text links make a big difference when it comes to getting your site noticed, while making it more informative to your readers.

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Five Tips for Advertising a Proxy Site

by Paul Oneil on Jul.31, 2009, under web design

Proxy sites are in high demand 9 of the 12 months in the year, apart from summer time they have small dips following the terms of schools but apart from this demand is increasingly high year after year.

So you may question why it is that you don’t receive any traffic at all, well the fact is that unless you have a great domain name which people will type in to the search browser with out searching for it then you need to publicise your proxy site as with any other form of website proxy sites need advertising.

The best techniques I have learnt for promoting proxy sites have been these next 5 top tips.

Instant Messenger

Search engine optimisation is my first and most important form of creating traffic to any of my websites, you could say I am addicted to SEO. However the results are always great, the only problem with SEO is that it is a long term strategy which takes time and patience. SEO is not something that you can apply and see results from straight away, it takes months.

I am however all for proxy submission websites these websites allow you to add your proxy URL for free but usually give you the choice to add a paid proxy link. These websites usually offer great traffic or at least good enough traffic for the 2 minute free submission that was little effort, so look out for these forms of proxy sites.

Social networking websites

Yahoo

Yahoo has two different forms of advertising which I love, Yahoo groups and Yahoo answers both in the past have offered me large amounts of traffic for free with little to no effort.

Yahoo has two different forms of advertising which I love, Yahoo groups and Yahoo answers both in the past have offered me large amounts of traffic for free with little to no effort.

You find relevant proxy groups and promote your proxy site through creating a thread when you have joined and asking people to go on to your proxy site. Again that’s quite a simple one.

The idea here is that you answer as many relevant questions regarding proxy sites as you can, leaving your proxy site URL in the answer they then click on the URL and so do many others, pretty simple.

Yahoo

You find relevant proxy groups and promote your proxy site through creating a thread when you have joined and asking people to go on to your proxy site. Again that’s quite a simple one.

Social networking websites

Sites such as MySpace or facebook, tell your friends about your website your proxy site is in high demand and most people use them so tell everyone you know and tell them to tell everyone they know, viral marketing is great.

Submit your proxy site to proxy submission sites

Now you may assume that I am talking about proxy top sites, the websites which force you to make a repricol link otherwise your proxy site won’t be advertised on their website. Well i am not on about these sites, and to be honest I would never use these websites. They slow down your proxy site and make it look tacky, also the top sites are benefiting much more than you are in most cases.

Overall the best technique for increasing traffic with your proxy sites is being creative and focused. Focus on one form of advertising and stick with it until you prevail, experiment and trial and error always take place with any form of promotion.

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SEOXtreme Search Engine Marketing Tips

by Lee Daniels on Jul.31, 2009, under web design

We all know what you want! You want more web site sales right? You not only want your competitors to Beg For Mercy and hurry back home to their mother, but you also want to become the alpha male of your target market!

Let me begin by saying, that you might as well quit and count your losses if your web site is compared to a ghost town that’s not listed on the map! We all know that if your phone doesnt ring off the hook with qualified hot prospects wanting to buy what you have, your business will quickly fail.

SEOXtreme discovered that most of modern Internet marketers spend a fortune on developing their websites, and marketing media , but what they fail to realize is that the If you build it they will come mind set should be left for the film studio.

What normally happen, however, is that web site owners who automatically expected to get sales because they have a great product and beautiful web site end up practically homeless, because theyre not making money from sales!

There are two things Im sure well all agree on. Number oneis that in the 80s it use to be locationlocationlocation, but in todays generation its the Internet. Secondly the search engines are being used more today than they were 10 years ago, and the Search Engines will be used more in ten years from now then they are today!

As a matter of fact, a world renowend Internet research company the” internet world stats”, declaired on their web site that the amount of online users has grown from 360 million to over 1.5 billion in the last 8 years!

The issues todays online corporations face is they’re not receving the web traffic they need to make sales. By the way when I mention traffic Im not talking about penny site traffic. Im talking about unbelievable search engine domination.

Now I hate to Bust your Bubble, for those of you who dont know but Search Engine Domination does not mean Search Engine Optimizing your web site and submitting it to the search engines! Yes, you want to submit your site to the search engines, but all it really does is create a few links, on a search inquiry that hopefully someone will find!

I know Im going to sound like Stephen hawking here but by only submitting your website to the search engines alone, your probability of getting a click to your web site is going to be 1 out of 10 or 1 out of 10 thousands depending on what page you show up on in the search engines.so this means that your chances of landing sales from your web site is going to be pretty low or even non-existent. Lets face it, sales is a numbers game, the more visits you get to your web site the more sales youll obtain.

Now take a moment and do the mathhow many more visits to your web site do you think youll obtain if you have 10s of thousands of search engine links from multiple sources and directions driving targeted traffic to your web site? And another way to put it isHow many more sales do you think youll obtain if you have 10s of thousands of other web sites promoting your products or services? Thats right, your web site traffic and SALES are going to be directly proportional to the amount of links and external websites that are promoting you!

The SEO Xtreme team is all about helping you to acquire more sales by delivering targeted prospects to your web site via search engine domination.

SEO Xtreme can help you with Search engine domination, via article saturation, social media marketing, automated marketing systems, lead capture, link building, market analysis and much more. They can also show you how you can top into your competitors traffic and nap all of their sales by dominating their search terms.

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How To Become A Successful Event Photographer

by Danny Cooper on Jul.30, 2009, under multimedia

Professional event photography is a booming career. An event photographer is one who attends marriages, sports events, music performances, award ceremonies etc. to take photos of the occasion.

There is a false impression among many people that all an event photographer does is turn up at the venue with a camera and start shooting merrily. However, this is not right at all. Many advanced courses are dedicated to prepare people to become an event photographer and as with any other highly skilled job, an event photographer must have some important qualities to excel at his job.

Having a creative streak is elementary for an event photographer and he must be able to adapt to the theme of the event. For example, a wedding has to be covered in a completely different manner than a sports event. Therefore, the photographer should have a flair for capturing the mood of an event in his pictures.

Event photography also requires several managerial skills. Carelessness and apathy won’t make you successful in this profession. The photographer should always be prepared with all his equipment before the event begins. Taking the job casually and appearing in an event without any planning will jeopardize your chances of doing well in this profession.

An event photographer must be technically sound and qualified for the job. He must know his equipment thoroughly and must have a good idea about how to control the settings to get a top class result. The use of illumination and different angles is very important in any form of photography and a photographer ought to know how to make use of them in various situations.

In short, event photography demands the practitioner’s devotion along with his eagerness for learning different facets of the profession. You also need to improve your alertness levels and adaptability to be able to do well in this field.

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Look Impressive Online and Get a Sideline Business to Boot.

by Owen Jones on Jul.30, 2009, under web design

Do you already have a business? I mean a conventional, off-line business. Or are you trying to make some money promoting generic sites with only an affiliate link? Both of these types of business often have something in common ” that is that their online presence is usually awful.

Many business owners and affiliate website promoters just do not seem to understand that a poor website does a lot more harm than good. A business owner who has created a website on Geofreebies or one of the other free webspace providers is essentially doing the same as someone who only promotes an affiliate link on an automatically-generated, replicated affiliate page.

The problem is that it is all too obvious that those websites are cheap and nasty and, unfortunately, that reflects on the business and the business owner both. The same goes for free email addresses. Just consider, what looks better to you:

http://www.geofreebies.com/memnbersites/Amiable-Dragon.html

amiable-dragon123456@yahoo.com or

http://amiabledragon.com

owen@amiabledragon.com

It is all too obvious which looks more professional; which gives more confidence and which would bring in more customers and so more sales and Im sure that there is no one in the world who would disagree with that.

The next thing to think about is the extension ” ie the letters after the . or the @. .com probably surely still carries the most prestige, but it no longer has the lead it used to have. .tv, .biz, .info have their places, I’m suppose, but they do not really have the same cachet as ‘dot com’. However, there is another problem with .com and that is that it has been around since the dawn of the Internet and very many of the name combinations have already been taken up.

I consider that .ws is a very valid alternative to this problem. You could imagine it standing for web site, although it actually stands for Western Samoa! It is a relatively new suffix and many, many name combinations are still available. I am sure you could still get the address you want. Something else you may not know is that when you buy your own domain name, you can create any email address out of it by putting anything instead of the http://www and replacing the DOT with an @ sign. Look at the address above again for an example.

Then you have to choose a host for your domain and administer the site and email addresses. The fees are usually paid annually in advance for the name and monthly for the hosting, quite often both payments go to different companies. However, there is now a very professional company on the market which is offering a website, with a name of your choice and ten variable email addresses and a free website design service and all you pay is $10 a month to one firm for the whole package. There is no contract and you can leave at any time or change the email or website addresses. It is remarkably flexible.

That is a very good deal for a business website (think of: sales@….; info@….), a family website (everyone can have their own email) or an affiliate website (using redirects). But that is not all there is to it! You can actively promote the host company or just put a referral link to it on your website and make cash, month after month in perpetuity from referrals for no extra work on your part! And if you use the link below, you will get a weeks free trial and three paying members in your downline, subject to a condition, or your first months $10 paid for by us.

That cant be bad, can it? You can not lose. Five weeks free trial of your own domain, hosted on your own site, with 10 email address or a free week with three members paying you $3 a month to give your business a flying start!

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Why Is It One Of The Most CostEffective Ways To Advertise Your Business

by John Jones on Jul.30, 2009, under web design

The Internet has made this world an open enterprise. It has become important for companies to further expand their market and their consumer targets. Engaging to Internet Marketing maybe a risk for people who wish to be involved with this type of business.

Ensure that most of your target consumers will surely acquire your product. Consider the best products which will definitely capture their interests and needs. This means that you need to identify specifically who these people are, their location and financial level in the society.

Here are the following reasons on why web marketers go gaga over affiliate marketing as a form of Internet advertisement.

At the present, you can use varied Internet Marketing Solutions that is being offered by companies which can be your tool for support to your consumers. This solution maybe email marketing, search engine optimization or creating web pages or sites.

First, to be able to capture the attention of your target audience, your title and topic should be thought of with concern. You have to make the people believe that your cheap internet banner advertising is worthy of their time. The advertisement has to meet the audience’s need.

Unlimited income through leverage When you have a paid job, your monthly income mainly relies on whether you go to work or not. With affiliate marketing, your affiliates could all just lead traffic to your site without having to lift a finger after providing them your ad copy and links. Though not every web marketer earns limitless, it still is a fact that all the necessary matters for the advertiser or Internet marketer are all there to be successful.

It may be in a way of marketing articles, leading them to forums or newsletters. A newsletter has an advantage of expanding your consumers as more and more sign up on it until you can have a bulk list of emails.

Another great Internet marketing solution is through websites. This is a good promotion strategy to employ since you can display all the necessary information for your target consumers. The website should capture their interest and be complete since every transaction, from inquiry to payments may take place. All correspondence that will be done online must be wellfacilitated by the features of your website.

Another Internet marketing solution is search engine optimization. This is a type of service for your website that you can make use of in order to raise the number of visitors to your site. Once a consumer uses a search engine, your website will rank high in the list of searches which in return will increase your site’s traffic.

But all of these will be put to waste if you don’t have the right niche product and all the other important tools to make it big in affiliate marketing, Example., well SEOed website. So better work on this first before ever considering those benefits.

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Watch Weeds TV Show Online

by Jaimie Page on Jul.29, 2009, under multimedia

Weeds has been around since August 2005. It has been an integral part of TV viewers lives and has become routine to watch their episodes for many people. The setting for weeds is out of a California Suburb. After the sudden death of Nancy Botwins husband, she decided to become the neighborhood marijuana dealer. This plot discloses some of the dirty secrets behind the doors of very prestigious and rich people in their neighborhood. Nancy tries to manage raising two boys alone. The plot of Weeds is very unique and contributes to the shows success.

Weeds is played on Showtime Network and is on Season five now. Due to the overwhelming success of the show, the producers have announced that there were will also be a season 6 aired in 2010. These seasons are planned for 13 episodes. These new episodes should explore more about Nancys everday troubles and are suppose to shed some more light on her past.

The past seasons of “Weeds” has showed us many problems that Nancy faces routinely. Some supporting characters include her brother in law Andy Botwin. He was originally asked to leave after Nancy’s husband’s death. However, he came back after she saw how his presence supported a healthy family. Another important character is Celia Hodes who is the mother of two teenage daughters.

Other characters include Nancy’s son Silas Botwin. He has been disturbed since his father’s death and as a result finds himself unable to maintain healthy relationships. His brother, Shane Botwin, is very smart. Many people consider him to be pretty weird, but he is quite normal. Doug Wilson is Nancy’s accountant with quite a sense of humor. He has a gay son as well as a charming wife and a girlfriend.

In the first season of “Weeds” we see that Nancy struggles after her husband Judah dies. She has to step up to the plate and assume responsibility as a single mother managing a household. We all can admire her bravery for doing such unconventional work and her creativity to pull it off so successfully.

The second season started off in a lighter tone. We see Nancy getting involved in more serious, underground drug trafficking scenarios. In season three started continued on the fallen drug deals of the second season finale. The drug trade gets even more serious and Nancy is becoming a bigger dealer. In season four we see the Botwin family relocate to another town and watch Nancy start drug trafficking across the border.

We all see that “Weeds” TV Show is very unconventional. The plot is very unique and absurd and this targets a wide audience. This show appeals to younger people as well as older. The show is centered around a single mom, drugs, family problems and riddled with comedy. If you dare sit down and watch Weeds you will be hooked.

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How Can Great Copy Help You – Learn Copywriting Secrets

by Patricia Peruse on Jul.29, 2009, under web design

Are you facing the situation when you have a well designed website and an excellent product, but no sales? Well, you must have forgotten that websites don’t sell, but your words do. All you need to do is create a copy which gets your visitors to buy and if you want to know how to do it, here are five things you definitely should know.

First of all, try to think as your prospect does. This means you want your copy to clearly outline what is in it for a client. People are more interested in what this product is going to do for them, than in how you are going to deliver it, and if you understand this you are already close to success.

The second thing is to communicate which emotional benefit person is going to get from your product. People are often driven by emotions when it comes to buying something, so focusing on emotional part when talking about your products can really increase your conversions.

The next thing you need to do is to use your writing skills to describe the emotional benefit as best as you can and invite people to share in the experience. If you did a good job and people will enjoy it, they will become your customers, if not, you need to work more on this part, as this is your opportunity of persuading the audience.

The last think you need is to make sure your call to action is clear and easily found. The last thing you want is to make people confused when it comes to taking the action, and you can avoid this only by working out step by step instructions and leading people through the whole process.

When a copy for your website is ready, you need to be reviewing and improving it periodically. If you look at it as a process, you will finally have a great copy which will compel your audience to purchase from you better than any other marketing tool can do.

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Apple iPod touch 16 GB (2nd Generation) Plus Review

by Larry Williams on Jul.29, 2009, under multimedia

Many people consider the iPod touch to be the ugly stepchild of the iPhone. After all, an iPhone lets you surf the web, listen to music, watch videos and download applications. Oh, and it’s also a cell phone. Of course, everything before ‘Oh, and it’s also a cell phone’ applies to the iPod Touch as well.

Where the iPod Touch and the iPhone differ is in their ability to make cellular phone calls, and use AT&Ts 3G network. Both devices are still capable of playing nearly any kind of media format known to mankind, and have the same user interface that Apple has made famous with the iPhone commercials.

The interest in the iPod Touch boils down to the fact that without the cell phone circuitry, it’s not only cheaper, but it lasts longer on a charge off of the battery. It’s also been refreshed with a hardware volume control, and the internal speaker has gotten a couple of subtle improvements.

As a music player, the iPod touch is excellent. It’s got great sound quality, and because it doesn’t have to share space inside the body with a cell phone antenna, the speakers have gotten a much more vibrant response. It plays back audio better than the iPhone does.

As with all Apple products, the industrial design is excellent. The iPod touch has the same sleek design as the iPhone does, with a steel back and the clear, uncluttered face. The user interface options are as rich as the iPhone’s is, and the ability to surf the web on any WiFi connections makes it the mobile device for people who want to check things out on the go. It’s a little lighter weight than the iPhone as well. And the higher end speakers meant that if you aren’t listening through the headphones it’s going to be an attention-getting device.

Because of the fact that it’s not trying to cram too many functions into one device, the iPod Touch does most of its music and movie player functions better. It sounds better, and it gets better battery life than an iPhone. A lot of the people I’ve seen using an iPhone would probably be better off with two devices – an iPod Touch and a cell phone. Even better, the iPod Touch doesn’t come with a two year contract commitment.

Whether it’s classical, rock or punk, the iPod touch will handle all the dynamic range of the music – from the clearest cymbals to the richest horns to the sharpest bass notes. Whatever it is, your iPod touch can handle the quality and make you proud.

Whatever music you listen to – or whatever movies you watch, the iPod touch is a lust-worthy gadget. It’s something that most technical people enjoy, and it does more than any other iPod out there. The concept of the iPod has evolved, and this is the shape of media players to come.

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