The Web Design Learning Process

The Internet has opened a whole New World of opportunity for all of us. With the vast amount of information available at your fingertips, it has never been easier to communicate your message to the world.

A web site will enable you to create your own home on the World Wide Web. Your home may be as simple or dynamic as you'd like and is only limited by your imagination.

Although designing a great web site is an important part of developing a successful online business, it is only one small part of an overall plan.

Although many new Internet entrepreneurs believe that all they need to do to make money online is to put up a web site, that couldn't be further from the truth.

The truth is developing a successful Internet business takes a great deal of time, thought and effort. It takes a sincere commitment, a lot of patience, and a lot of personal drive.

There are a lot of lessons that must be learned, and a lot of failures that must be endured. However, if you're truly passionate about your business and success, it will happen -- you will succeed.

A major factor in determining your success is the amount of time you take to educate yourself. Please don't take this point lightly, as it can literally mean the difference between your success and failure.

Sure, learning HTML is an important part of designing a successful web site; however, it is only one small part. You must first develop a strategic plan and design your web site accordingly.

Prior to designing your web site, here are some questions to assist you in developing your strategy:

� Who is your target audience?
� What is your most wanted response?
� What products and/or services will you offer?
� Will you sell affiliate products and/or services?
� What type of design will you use?
� Will you design your site or hire a professional?
� How will your site be navigated?
� How will your site be optimized?
� What type of graphics will your site use?
� Where will you obtain your graphics?
� What graphic formats will you use?
� What fonts will you use?
� How will you design your site for different screen sizes?
� How will you design your site for different web browsers?
� How will you optimize your pages for the Search Engines?
� How will you make your web pages load quickly?
� What type of content will your site offer?
� Where will the content come from?
� How will you gain your visitors' trust?
� How will you build your credibility?
� Will you write your own sales copy or hire a copywriter?
� How will you accept payment through your site?
� How will you process your orders?
� How will you deliver your products or services?
� How will you collect your customers' information and store it within a database?
� How will you automate portions of your business?
� Where will you find the scripts you need?
� What types of scripts will you use? CGI, JavaScript?
� Will you need to hire a professional to write your scripts?
� Will you edit and install your own scripts or hire a professional?
� What kind of computer software will you need?
� Where will you find the software?
� How will you decide on a domain name?
� How will you register a domain name?
� How will you host your web site?
� How will you upload your files to your server?
� Should your files be uploaded in binary or ASCII mode?
� What should you look for in a quality web host?
� Will you publish an ezine?
� How will you collect email addresses?
� How will you send out mailings?
� How will you drive traffic to your web site?
� How will you advertise your products and services?
� How will you test your advertising?
� Will you offer an affiliate program?
� How will you run your affiliate program?
� How will you market and promote your web site, products and/or services?

Although this list of questions is far from complete, it will give you a basic idea of exactly what is involved in developing a successful web site. As you can see, there is much more to take into consideration than just learning HTML. You must look at the entire picture and design your web site accordingly. Plan your work then work your plan.

Above all else, you must be willing to invest in your business -- not only monetarily, but also your time. Although there is a lot of free information available online to assist you, keep in mind...you get what you pay for.

The great thing is you don't have to reinvent the wheel. There are many successful Internet entrepreneurs that have been where you are right now. Subscribe to their publications -- listen to their advice -- purchase their products. If you begin by following in the footsteps of successful Internet entrepreneurs, you will eventually begin making your own paths and find your own success.

Copyright © Shelley Lowery

Promoting Your Web Site

Creating a successful Internet presence involves much more than designing a great web site or having the "perfect" product. Listing your web site with the Search Engines is your first step; however, you must not solely rely on the Search Engines to bring you traffic.

You must design a complete promotional strategy and work it every day. If you're launching a new web site, your first step will be to submit your site to the Search Engines and Directories.

Although there are many auto-submission software programs available on the Internet, make sure you manually submit your site to the main Search Engines and Directories:

Google http://www.google.com/addurl.html (Although you can submit your site map to Google, you will receive a higher ranking by allowing their robots to find your pages on their
own.)
The Open Directory Project http://dmoz.org/add.html
AltaVista http://www.altavista.com/addurl
Lycos http://www.lycos.com/addasite.html
Hotbot http://hotbot.lycos.com/addurl.asp

Once you've manually submitted your main pages, visit SelfPromotion.com http://www.selfpromotion.com to automatically submit your pages to a number of additional Search Engines and Directories.

A good way to organize your promotions is to set up a web page, for your personal use, that will contain your complete strategy. This page should be stored on your hard drive and not uploaded to your server. Your page should contain four sections.

1. Daily Promotions
2. Weekly Promotions
3. Monthly Promotions
4. Miscellaneous Promotions

Each of these four sections should contain the appropriate information for each of your promotional resources, such as web site name, user ID, password (if applicable) and hyperlinked web addresses for each web site you plan to use for your promotions. This will enable you to open your web page each day and visit the sites you have listed.

-> Daily Promotions

Discussion Boards

Visit some popular discussion boards and share your expertise. Although you may not advertise on discussion boards, you can include your signature file with your post. Before you begin posting to discussion boards, make sure you lurk a while and see exactly how the board functions.

Visit http://www.web-source.net/web/Discussion_Forums/ for a complete listing of some of the top discussion boards.

-> Weekly Promotions

Ezine Advertising / Ad Swaps

Your weekly promotions should consist of placing a paid ezine advertisement and/or arranging ad swaps with fellow publishers.

Visit the Directory of Ezines for a complete listing of hundreds of publishers and contact information for advertising. http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=doe

To organize your ad placements and swaps, place the publication names, publisher names, ad dates and hyperlinked web addresses within your weekly promotions list.

-> Monthly Promotions

Your monthly promotions should include writing an article in the area of your expertise, promotional exchanges with similar web sites, and offline promotions.

To organize your monthly promotions, place the names and hyperlinked web addresses for each of your promotional resources within your monthly promotions section.

Writing Articles

Writing articles that may be freely published with your bylines is one of the best promotional methods online. Your article may be published in hundreds of ezines, on web sites or even in magazines.

For further information on writing articles, visit:
http://www.web-source.net/write.htm

Promotional Exchanges

Cross promoting is a powerful technique used by many Internet marketers to increase the exposure of their products, services or publications. You simply decide what type of promotional exchange you would be interested in and contact fellow marketers to discuss an exchange.

The most effective technique used in cross promotions is recommendations. By providing each other with a personal recommendation you can increase your response rates tremendously.

Here are some popular cross promoting techniques you can use to boost your business:

Link Exchanges

Exchange links with web sites similar to yours, but not in competition. Many Search Engines are now utilizing a system that tracks and ranks sites according to the number of quality links pointing to a particular web site. By exchanging links with similar web sites, you will not only increase your Search Engine ranking, but you will also increase your web site traffic.

Ezine Ad Swaps

Exchange subscription ads with other ezine publishers. Ezine advertising is one of the best forms of advertising on the Internet. By swapping ads with fellow ezine publishers, you can run your ad in other publications free of charge.

Subscription Exchanges

Exchange subscription information with fellow ezine publishers. Provide recommendations within your ezine's welcome message, thank you page and even on your multiple subscription ezine form.

Ezine Column

Partner with a similar publication and provide content for each other. This may be a weekly tips column, question and answer column or whatever you'd like.

Ebook Exchanges

Partner with fellow Internet marketers and create free ebooks to freely distribute. The ebook should mutually benefit and promote both of you, while providing valuable information for your visitors.

Ride Alongs

A ride along is any extra information (advertisements) sent along with a direct mailing. You can use this same technique with any ezine solo mailings you may run by including an exchange recommendation within your mailing. In addition, you can include recommendations within your thank you letters you send out when you deliver your products.

Up sells

An up sell is used when your customer is in the process of ordering your product. Another product is introduced, for a small additional cost, just as you're closing the sale. This technique is used with many infomercials when the customer calls in their order. The operator will introduce an additional product for a minimal extra charge. You can use this same technique on your order page by trading product recommendations with fellow marketers.

A quality recommendation will pull a much higher response rate than just a link or banner. Cross promote with individuals you truly respect and believe in, as your professional reputation is on the line.

Offline Promotions

Promoting your web site offline is another great way to increase your traffic. Below are several resources to assist you:

IDit Plates http://www.web-source.net/cgi-bin/t.cgi?l=idit Put your web address on your vehicle. IDit Plates are a great way to continuously promote your web site. They're triple chrome plated and blend in well with your vehicle.

Visit iPrint http://www.iprint.com for your printing needs. From business print items to promotional items, iPrint has it all.

Place ads in newspapers, magazines, on the radio, or on TV. Visit these links for complete listings:

Gebbie Press http://www.gebbieinc.com
Newspapers Online http://www.newspapers.com

For even more promotional products, PromoCity can add your logo to any one of over 500,000 items. http://www.promocity.com

-> Miscellaneous Promotions

Your miscellaneous promotions might include paying for traffic, text and banner advertising.


Once you've implemented your promotional strategy and continuously work it each day, you'll be amazed with the results of your efforts. Consistency will be the key to driving massive traffic to your site.

Copyright © Shelley Lowery

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery. http://www.webdesignmastery.com And, Ebook Starter - Give Your Ebooks the look and feel of a REAL book. http://www.ebookstarter.com

Writing a Request For Proposal For Web Site Design and Development

A company that is looking to get bids from several qualified vendors for a Web site design or development project will typically write a Request for Proposal (RFP) and either post it online or send it directly to potential vendors it has identified.

As with any complex project, a Web site design project requires clear communication between the client and web developer in order for the client to receive accurate bids. The RFP serves as a baseline of project requirements on which competing vendors may price their services. I have outlined a few items below that should typically be in a Website Design and Development Request for Proposal, though some times more information is necessary.

Writing your Request for Proposal

The Request for Proposal (RFP) process allows potential vendors to get an idea of your goals, existing challenges and possible limitations without lengthy phone discussions or in-person meetings that can severely impact the amount of time it takes for you to get started with your Web Design and Development project. It allows you to succinctly describe exactly what you are looking for and what a potential vendor should expect in the project.

An ideal RFP would clearly specify all the requirements pertaining to your website. It would allow the developer to present you with a proposal based your particular needs and, needless to say, the more details your RFP contains, the more accurate a proposal the developer is able to present.

Components of a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Web site Design and Development Project:

Project Background Information

• Brief overview of your organization, including some history and your primary business objectives.
• Detailed description of the project you would like to receive the proposal for.
• If your budget requirements are strict, it might help to include a 'Ballpark' Budget - which developers can use to scope and scale your solution and save you time.
• Target launch date and required deliverable dates - include any dates that you need the project to meet. Are there crucial meetings and cut-off dates that the developer should be aware of? If you are not sure what the time frame should be, it's okay to see what the proposals you receive recommend and renegotiate. It's also good to anticipate and state how flexible you are with the project's completion date.

Marketing Requirements and Data

• Audience demographics - who will be the main users of your site? Are there several different audiences that need to be addressed?
• User comfort level with technology - how technically savvy is your audience? Will they know how to deal with plug-ins, for example?
• Will users have high-speed connections, or will many be on modems?
• Audience base - how large do you expect your user base to be?

Design and Corporate Branding Requirements

• Do you have corporate identity guidelines that must be followed, including fonts and colors and graphic treatments?
• What look and feel to you envision for the Web site? Include some adjectives to describe what your site should communicate.
• Provide examples of Web sites that relate to the RFP either because they have a similar feel to the one your are looking for, or even examples of what you do NOT want.
• Will there be any animated elements (i.e. Flash animations)? How many? How are they going to be used?

Technical and Infrastructure Requirements

• Web hosting considerations. Do you currently have a Web host or are you looking for a new one to handle this project?
• Browser/platform considerations. Generally speaking, a Web site for consumers or the general public should work similarly across all modern browsers and Operating Systems. If you are targeting a very specific audience it is possible your needs are different.
• Development platform requirements. Do you require an Open Source solution, are you open to a proprietary solution that is more tailored to your exact needs, etc.
• Coding language requirements (e.g. ASP.NET, PHP, Java). Many times this depends on the type of Web hosting platform or any pre-existing software you may have.
• Are there third party applications you'd like to incorporate?

Functionality/programming Requirements

• Will there be forms on the site? If so, how many? How should they be handled? (e.g. e-mailed to recipients, stored in a database, etc.)
• Will the site require tools to manage content/information (e.g. ability for staff to add content such as press releases or quarterly reports)?
• Will there be any e-commerce on the site? If so, who will be entering data on products offered? How will transactions be managed?
• Are there any other interactive features the site should have? What are they, and how do you envision them to work?

Search Engine Optimization

• Describe any currently defined search engine friendly production requirements and expectations
• Indicate if you are seeking SEO/SEM consultation services

Ongoing Site Maintenance Plans

• How often will the site be updated? Are you looking for a retainer situation, or 'on-demand' hourly work?
• Will you be self-maintaining or will you be outsourcing maintenance services?

Project Management

• Who will be the main point of contact on your staff? Keep in mind that in most cases it is easiest to have a single point of contact at both your organization and the company designing and developing your Web site.
• How will the tasks be divided between you and the developer in order to complete the project?
• Are there any third parties (subcontractors, etc.) that will also be involved in the project?

RFP Response Deadline and Contact Information

• When is the response to the RFP due?
• To whom should the response be sent?
• Do you prefer E-mail or hard copies, and if so, how many hard copies?
• Is there a specific solicitation number that needs to be referenced in the Proposal Document?
• What is the RFP review process? How long do you anticipate to take to make your decision before the project can begin?

Some Additional Thoughts Before You Begin:

• For all items listed above, be sure to clearly indicate if you must have any item(s) bid as an optional aspect of the project. Keep in mind possible dependencies between project aspect/components that may make this impractical.
• Before writing your Request For Proposal, determine your budget for the project and, beyond that, your priorities for selecting a Developer who can meet your budgetary requirements.

Writing an RFP is a good exercise for anyone thinking about a site design or redesign as it takes thoughtful planning to specify and construct a website. A well thought out, quality RFP is essential to a successful endeavor because it helps you to focus on your goals and exactly how to achieve them.

Best of luck with your Web site Design and Development Project.

Greg Kihlstrom is the Creative Director at Carousel30 Interactive Media, Washington DC. His company designs and develops Web sites and other Interactive Media such as iPhone applications and more. Greg also writes about Web site Design issues on his blog entitled "Design in Context." Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Greg_Kihlstrom

Attract Buyers to Your Web Site With Valuable Web Content

Content is the most important component of your web site. Content gives people a reason to visit and buy from your web site. Useful content gets visitors to your site, engages them, builds credibility, and converts them into buyers. Surveys indicate that 80 percent of visitors go to web sites to get information. Only 5 percent are interested in graphics.

Valuable content can include how-to articles, reports, tips, links to useful resources, and freebies. For example, a web design company may provide free graphics and diagnostic tools. A CD web site may offer free reviews, biographies of musicians, and an online jukebox that allows visitors to preview their music selection.

To make money with your web site, you also need to include:

• Contact information. Include your name, business name, email, 800#, local phone number (international prospects can't call 800 numbers), fax, and mailing address.

• Company information.

• Product information, the benefits of your products and services, how to purchase them, and their best uses.

• A compelling, benefit-oriented sales letter.

• A special offer.

• A call to action.

• Ordering information.

• An online order form.

Target Your Content to Your Audience

• Provide information that is valuable, useful, or entertaining to your target market.

• Feature content relevant to the topic of your site.

• Use a feedback form to find out what your visitors and prospective buyers want.

Visitors typically come to your web site four to seven times before they buy from you. Attract prospective buyers to your site with content and keep attracting them to turn them into buyers.

Leva Duell, Five Star Web Design and Marketing, provides web design built on proven marketing strategies. To get a FREE ebook, Inside Secrets to Developing a Profitable Web Site, providing powerful, non-techie web design and marketing strategies to increase your online profits, visit http://www.fivestarwebdesign.com/ebook.html Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leva_Duell

THE IMPORTANCE OF A WEBSITE

A WEBSITE is the program that runs on the internet, maintaining series of web pages on the World Wide Web. It is also a computer program that runs a web server which provides access to a group of related Web pages.

Owing a website avails you the extra-ordinary opportunity of generating huge passive income, if you are type that has a job (be it a part-time or full-time job), receiving weekly salaries. But if you are the type that want to work full-time at home and intend to make more money working for about 10 to 15 hours a week, having time for your family, go on holidays with your beloved ones and above all living the life of your DREAM, you surely need a website of your own where people can reach you for business.

Worthy of mentioning here is the fact that your website has to be appealing and inviting so that visitors can make repeat visits and even recommend your site to friends and relations who may eventually be converted to customers. Your website must be innovative, educative, informative and above all it must be marketable in case you get tired of making money and want to sell it off, the website should be able to attract high bids thereby availing you the opportunity of “making money from the thin air”.

QUALITY
The quality of your website depends partly on your ability to hire a quality professional web designer. But another major factor is your ability to provide your designer good materials to work with from the onset, including great content, site specifications and a comprehensive outline of how your business works. With all these in place, I assure you of great success but not without ensuring the followings:

1. Determine the type of website you want. Is it going to be for personal use or a business tool?
Will it be purely informational or it will be interactive, so that visitors can buy a product or
service online.

2. Ask for recommendations from friends and select at least 3 for comparison of their style,
price and technical expertise.

3. Review their websites to see samples of their work. Look out for particularly sites relating to
similar business as yours.

4. Require for description of their approach to site building. Is he/she a core programmer or a
designer? Here, there is need for you to look out for someone or a firm with experts both in
programming and designs who will be able to take care of both aspects of the job.

5. Discuss with the probable qualifier the fee structure. Does the cost include hosting, domain
registration and updating the website? Ask if you will be trained to maintain the website
yourself. If yes, at what cost? if any.

6. Ask them to make recommendations on

- how many pages to be needed
- arrangement of the content
- application of technical solutions to problems and other issues.

With all these being taken care of, you are rest assured of a perfect and beautiful website that will attract visitors and even ensure repeat visits.

By Abiodun Shadare