StormBiz Blog

Internet MarketingAre you just getting started in Internet Marketing and you want to sell something? Not having your own product, you decide to try affiliate marketing (selling someone else’s product). OK, great…but how do you do it?

You can buy hundreds of e-books, all with different “systems” or strategies and you can find lots of free information as well. Eventually though, you are going to realize that you will need to make some landing pages.

What are landing pages? Landing pages are where you want your visitor to ”land” and once there, you hope they click on your link to go to the seller’s website, where they will then buy the product.

Why not just link directly to the sellers website? Why do you need a landing page at all? Well, it depends on how you are going to get your visitor to the seller’s site. A popular way is by writing articles, having them published, and having readers find those articles and click on the links inside them. The problem is that many article sites do not allow direct affiliate marketing links. They will allow links to your website or landing page, but not directly to the seller.

You can learn a lot about landing pages by typing in “What are landing pages” in Google. You will find lots of useful information and tips galore on how to make great landing pages. But just like everything else on the Internet, after reading 10 or so different articles, you may be no closer to making one and confused about exactly what you should do.

Profitable Product PagesI believe the best way to get started is by making simple landing pages that pretty much say to the viewer, ‘here is the product, and here is where you get it“. I don’t do a lot of “pre-selling” on my landing pages and many Internet marketers would disagree with that. The common consensus is that you should warm your visitor up to the sale by reviewing the item and/or telling them how great it is.

The problem with that is that it is difficult to write convincingly about something you know little about. Another problem for beginners is that their writing skills may not be up to par…at least not yet. That is why I recommend setting up something simple at first.

My opinion is that it is my job (or you might say the landing page’s job) to get the visitor to the seller’s website. It is the seller’s job from there to convert the sale. I sort of just open the door for customers to walk through and let the product and shopkeeper do the rest. If they can’t do their job, then I have to at some time or other, move to another product.

BlogI suggest opening a blogger.com account or Wordpress.com account (which are both free) and use those as your landing pages. Make your site as pretty and colour co-ordinated as you can (some people will obviously be better at this than others,) and do a lot of copying and pasting graphics and words from your sellers website. Only use one link to the seller’s website though, as using free blogs for marketing is frowned on, and if you overdo it they could suspend you. Ideally you should get your own domain and hosting but that can be done once you start making money. If you have a Wordpress blog you can even go to YouTube and perhaps find a video about the product you are selling and put that in your blog. Looks great and I’ve done it.

Basically you are making a big advertisement that says “This is where you get so and so product”. If the people you drive to your blog want that product, then they will click on the link to find out more. Once they do that, you have done your job. Making a landing page is the easy part…..getting targeted traffic to your website or blog is much harder.

Contact us for a free quotation, or to discuss your website requirements

Very Messy OfficeWhether a business has just got off the ground or has been established for years, start-up and long running companies are looking to the internet to expand their sales, as well as service to customers. Many new websites are going up and with so many people opting to go with the cheapest route, or the quickest design process, sometimes the quality of a website gets left behind. Lets face it, you wouldn't want a possible client coming into your office, looking around at a mess, so why would you send them to your virtual office looking like one?

People very often go to a company's website to get more information, it is a lot easier and more convenient then calling them or writing them a letter. The first thing they see when they go to their site(that is, the first thing that pops into their heads) is either "wow, these guys are professional, I want to deal with them" or "their site is awful, how can they act professional if they do not look professional"(well that may not be everyone’s exact words, but you see what I am getting at). We all think this when we visit a website, haven't you ever felt a little bit easier or more relaxed when purchasing something off a site with a professional look? I bet you that if a site doesn't look professional then you won't even consider purchasing an item or using their service!

Script ErrorAnother important aspect of a website is how long it takes to download. A lot of people say if it takes longer then 30 seconds to download then people will leave. This is true. I know that even on a DSL connection, if a site is taking too long to download I will jump to another site. If your site doesn't download in at least 30-60 seconds for all users(dial up taking a little longer), then you need to re-design your site.

Your site must not only look good and download quick, it must work good. There is nothing worse then visiting a website with pages that haven't been created yet, script errors popping up and only half of the information seems to be there. This will definitely annoy anyone who is visiting your website, they probably won't come back for a while, if at all.

Contact UsAnother important aspect of a good website is allowing visitors to contact you in one way or another. A simple email address or contact form on a contact us page will do wonders. People like to know they can get in touch with you with just a simple click of the mouse. Make sure that there is a link to your contact us page on every page, including in your main navigation. This will give users a feeling of being close to you, as they can contact you at any time.

Use these tips as well as your own common sense and you will be well on your way to having a great Looking, Working & Downloading Website!

Please feel free to contact us today for a free quotation or to discuss your website requirements

Hitting a Brick WallIf you’re anything like most online marketers, or website owners, you’ve probably tried every tweak, trick and technique you can think of to get your website to sell more.

Maybe you’ve even had a few successes, and actually improved your conversion rates a bit.

Yet, deep down inside, you’re positive that your site is capable of so much more. You just know that with the right changes and improvements you could be converting a ton more visitors into buyers.

But the problem is... You’ve hit a brick wall and just can’t figure out what to change or tweak.

Perhaps it’s time you tried a new pair of eyes!

Think about it... You’ve probably looked at your website a thousand times. You simply have too much knowledge about your products, your company, what you do and what you offer, to effectively see your website through a first time visitors eyes.

That is where an impartial and independent evaluation of your website can give you a valuable, fresh perspective.

In many professions, getting an outside, second opinion is a common practice.

So how can you get an outside opinion about your website?

New Pair of EyesYou have several options for finding that “new pair of eyes”.

You can ask your friends and family to take a look at your website. They may notice a few details you’ve missed, like typos or other simple errors. The main problem with family or friends is that they are often reluctant to tell you what they really think, simply because they don’t want to offend you, or hurt your feelings.

You can post a message to an online forum or discussion group, asking for feedback on your website. There are even categories in some popular forums specifically designed to request feedback for your site.

This is often a better option than family or friends, because you tend to get a broader cross-section of opinions, and the forum members are less likely to sugar coat the feedback they give you.

But, there is one major draw-back to either method of requesting feedback... The input you get about your website from family, friends and even forum posters will simply be based on opinions or “feelings”, not on expert, tested and proven techniques, or advanced sales psychology.

Talk to Family and FriendsBasically... They may not know what the heck they are talking about!

Another method for getting outside feedback, is to conduct a survey of your existing website traffic. This is often one of the best options to get constructive feedback on how to improve your website.

I frequently help my coaching and consulting clients conduct surveys of their website visitors as part of their conversion rate improvement programs.

Your final option is to find a company or consultant offering professional website evaluations, or critique services. The benefit here is that, in most cases, a professional will give you a much more comprehensive evaluation of your website than you will get from friends, family or your website visitors.

However, the main problem with the “professional” route is that almost all of the companies offering this type of service are web design companies. So the “evaluation” you get is usually just a disguised sales pitch for a full website redesign.

(Not to mention the fact that most web design firms don’t have the first clue on how to convert website traffic into buying customers...)

But if you screen website evaluation providers carefully, you can find a few that will give you some outstanding recommendations.

Here are a few questions to ask anyone you hire to evaluate your site.

Website TestingWhat is your background? (You want them to say they are marketers, not graphic or web designers, they need to understand sales psychology.)

Are your recommendations based on actual split test results? (Often the recommendations you will receive are based on theory or “one size fits all” best practices. Not on the results of actual testing, on actual websites.)

What kind of results have you produced for previous clients? (You want them to show you case studies or testimonials from clients who have achieved measurable results.)

How much time and money will it take to implement the recommendations? Is this just a sales pitch for some ten thousand dollar website redesign? (You want to make sure that the recommendations are going to be easy, and affordable for you to implement.)

Done properly, an outside, independent evaluation by a professional website evaluator, or conversion rate improvement expert, can significantly boost your websites sales. (As long as you take the time to make sure you’ve found a good one.)

So if you’re out of ideas for improving your site... Go out and get a fresh pair of eyes!

Please do not hesitate to contact us for a free quotation, or more information

Alt-TextAnyone who knows anything about web accessibility knows that images need alternative, or ALT, text assigned to them. This is because screen readers can't understand images, but rather read aloud the alternative text assigned to them. In Internet Explorer we can see this ALT text, simply by mousing over the image and looking at the yellow tooltip that appears. Other browsers (correctly) don't do this.

But surely there can't be a skill to writing ALT text for images? You just pop a description in there and you're good to go, right? Well, kind of. Sure, it's not rocket science, but there are a few guidelines you need to follow...

Spacer images and missing ALT text

Spacer images should always be assigned null ALT text, or alt="" . This way most screen readers will completely ignore the image and won't even announce its presence. Spacer images are invisible images that pretty most websites use. The purpose of them is, as the name suggests, to create space on the page. Sometimes it's not possible to create the visual display you need, so you can stick an image in (specifying its height and width) and volià, you have the extra space you need.

Not everyone uses this null ALT text for spacer images. Some websites stick in alt="spacer image". Imagine how annoying this can be for a screen reader user, especially when you have ten of them in a row. A screen reader would say, “Image, spacer image” ten times in a row (screen readers usually say the word, “Image”, before reading out its ALT text) - now that isn't helpful!

Other web developers simply leave out the ALT attribute for spacer images (and perhaps other images). In this case, most screen readers will read out the filename, which could be ‘newsite/images/onepixelspacer.gif’. A screen reader would announce this image as “Image, new-site slash images slash one pixel spacer dot gif”. Imagine what this would sound like if there were ten of these in a row!

Bullets and icons

Bullets and icons should be treated in much the same way as spacer images, so should be assigned null alternative text, or alt="". Think about a list of items with a fancy bullet proceeding each item. If the ALT text, ‘Bullet’ is assigned to each image then, “Image, bullet” will be read aloud by screen readers before each list item, making it take that bit longer to work through the list.

Icons, usually used to complement links, should also be assigned alt="". Many websites, which place the icon next to the link text, use the link text as the ALT text of the icon. Screen readers would first announce this ALT text, and then the link text, so would then say the link twice, which obviously isn't necessary.

(Ideally, bullets and icons should be called up as background images through the CSS document - this would remove them from the HTML document completely and therefore remove the need for any ALT description.)

No Alt TextDecorative images

Decorative images too should be assigned null alternative text, or alt="". If an image is pure eye candy then there's no need for a screen reader user to even know it's there and being informed of its presence simply adds to the noise pollution.

Conversely, you could argue that the images on your site create a brand identity, and by hiding them from screen reader users, you're denying this group of users the same experience. Accessibility experts tend to favour the former argument, but there certainly is a valid case for the latter too.

Navigation & text embedded within images

Navigation menus that require fancy text have no choice but to embed the text within an image. In this situation, the ALT text shouldn't be used to expand on the image. Under no circumstances should the ALT text say, ‘Read all about our fantastic services, designed to help you in everything you do’. If the menu item says, ‘Services’ then the ALT text should also say ‘Services’. ALT text should always describe the content of the image and should repeat the text word-for-word. If you want to expand on the navigation, such as in this example, you can use the title attribute.

The same applies for any other text embedded within an image. The ALT text should simply repeat, word-for-word, the text contained within that image.

(Unless the font being used is especially unique it's often unnecessary to embed text within images - advanced navigation and background effects can now be achieved with CSS.)

Company logo

Websites tend to vary in how they apply ALT text to logos. Some say, ‘Company name’, others ‘Company name logo’, and other describe the function of the image (usually a link back to the homepage), ‘Back to home’. Remember, ALT text should always describe the content of the image so the first example, alt="Company name", is probably the best. If the logo is a link back to the homepage then this can be effectively communicated through the title tag.

Blind Person With Screen ReaderConclusion

Writing effective ALT text isn't too difficult. If it's a decorative image then null alternative text, or alt="" should usually be used - never, ever omit the ALT attribute. If the image contains text then the ALT text should simply repeat this text, word-for-word. Remember, ALT text should describe the content of the image and nothing more.

Do also be sure also to keep ALT text as short and succinct as possible. Listening to a web page with a screen reader takes a lot longer than traditional methods, so don't make the surfing experience painful for screen reader users with bloated and unnecessary ALT text.

For more information, or a free quotation, please contact us

A Website is Your Business CardIn today’s culture, a website represents your business card – even if you don’t have a business! Your child may have a website, your neighbour may have a website, and even your local place of worship has a website.

A website allows you to communicate – keep in touch with as many people as possible, while at the same time minimising the cost of doing so. Can you imagine the cost of consistently printing and mailing to 2000 loyal customers every month?

A website cuts down on your total cost of postage, and your everyday word processing software cuts down on physically writing out every greeting, or piece of correspondence.

However, a website does the one thing that you’re always looking for: a website helps to free your time.

Your time is the most precious commodity that you’ll never be able to get back. You’ll never be able to play that magnificent round of golf, go vacationing with the family or watching your child perform in their school play, if you’re constantly trying to free yourself of responsibilities.

Deteriorating WebsiteA website is a lot of work to start. That’s the truth. The best way to look at your website is to view it as your own body. When you put the right fuel (food) in your system, your body runs efficiently. You aren’t constipated, you have lots of energy, and you feel great. Combine this with a little exercise, and you’ll live a fairly long life. When you start feeding yourself bad food, you start to feel tired and irritable. You may gain weight and start outgrowing your favourite clothing.

That’s the same thing that could happen to your website, if it gets neglected. Just like your body, a website starts to deteriorate. The pride that you showed at having a website disappears, and your website suffers.

If you still have doubts about having a website, think of it as your on-line sales centre. Imagine having a system that can take your orders when you are asleep. Or a system that will allow you to take a holiday, and monitor your sales if you want to, without asking a sales manager? Maybe you don’t want to hire and train a new employee to take your orders, and to know your sales process. A website helps you be better at what you do, not what you shouldn’t.

For a free quotation or more information, please contact us today.