More Ever-Lasting Habits of Highly Successful Webmasters

I didn't see this one coming, but the popularity of my article entitled Ever-lasting Habits of Highly Successful Webmasters caused me to take a look and see if there were any other "habits" I could share that are used by successful webmasters. And indeed there are, as I share here today:

1. Making Use of SEO

Every good webmaster should use search engine optimization techniques for their website. At first glance, this can seem to be an intimidating area to get into, and when you don't have a very large budget, you may think that it is impossible to use SEO to your advantage. However, there are several free, and/or low-cost, tools on the Internet that will help you out. In addition, websites such as PromotionWorld and SEO-News offer a wealth of content on the subject of SEO. And even Google offers up some candid advice on giving your site an advantage in its results pages. Yes, SEO work takes a large investment in the way of time, but the results of continuous hard work will pay off - there are many companies today that do not use any form of paid advertising because all of their website traffic comes exclusively from non-paid search engine links. I suggest that you give search engine optimization a try for awhile, and see what happens.

2. Exchanging Links with Related Websites

Much has been said lately about the benefits of links, both outgoing and incoming, on the overall marketing success of a website, especially since Google's Jagger update. The common perception has always been that you need as many incoming links to your website as possible, and that you should spend all of your time exchanging links with everyone you can think of. While I could write a whole article on the myths of links and link exchanging (and I probably will at some point), I'll try to stay basic here. The main thing to know is that if the site that links to you - or the site you are linking to - has nothing to do with your website, it will do you no good, and may even penalize you in search results. Exchanging links can not only bring you actual traffic, but a link to your website can also act as a "vote" for you in the search engines' eyes. So choose your link exchange partners wisely. Do not use link farms. Do not blanket the Internet with links to your website. Instead, choose quality, non-competing, content-related websites that are willing to link to your site, either for a fee, or in exchange for a link from your website back to theirs. A strategic link-sharing campaign will be of much greater value to you in the long run than a poorly-planned "blitzkrieg".

3. Examining (and Conforming to) Customer Needs

Of course, you do know what your customers want, don't you? So often, entrepreneurs jump into business without even asking potential customers what they really want. This mistake can be deadly, and certainly won't earn you any friends. And just because you are currently successful does not mean that this will always be the case. Constantly ask your customers what they think about your products and services. Get their suggestions. And if a customer complains to you, or offers up a suggestion on their own, take it to heart - they have gone out of their way to communicate with you, meaning they want some sort of resolution for the situation; this is a golden opportunity to keep them as a customer for life.

4. Keeping Things Simple!

My own company, GlobalWebBrands, made the near-deadly mistake of "over-expanding" in two-thousand-and-five. I will always remember last year as the year that we tried too hard. Things have since settled down, but I will never make that same mistake again.

Please allow me to offer any startups or struggling businesses a very important piece of advice: when you start in a certain line of business, stay in that line of business! Until you have actually been there, you cannot imagine just how much trouble you will get into by rapidly expanding the number and type of products and services you offer, or the number of payment methods you offer, or the number of brands you have, or in the cases of some - the number of physical locations you have.

Diversify - ah yes, the golden word of the past fifteen years. Everybody has been chanting it: business 'gurus', personal investment 'gurus'. Folks, these people are not really gurus at all; rather, they're goons looking to make a little bit of money!

Customers today want simplicity. They want stability. They do not want everything from one person. Wal-Mart is failing, and they are proving that you just cannot be everything to everybody. Become the expert in your field, and not the Wal-Mart. Be one thing to everybody, and you will be successful beyond your wildest dreams.

In other words: Keep it simple, stupid!

Daniel J. Briere is the CEO of Netpreneur Host, a Web hosting and domain registration company for Webmasters and Internet entrepreneurs.

Ever-Lasting Habits of Highly Profitable Webmasters

This article details a few simple things that seasoned webmasters do that allow them to pull ahead of their competition. As a savvy web hosting customer and webmaster, these are steps you can take yourself.

1. Off-site Backups - It amazes me whenever I hear of a website hosting user complaining about "that great twenty-dollars-a-year website host I was using that disappeared and took all my files with them!" This is a consistent complaint in the industry, and it is so easily prevented. How do savvy webmasters avoid losing their files? Keep a backup either at your physical location, or on a web server in a different geographical region than the one your website is hosted on.

2. Independent Domain Registration - The second most-common complaint is a domain name that is held hostage by a web host, either because of misunderstanding between the client and the host, or because of an underhanded host. How can you prevent this? Register your domain name at GoDaddy.com, Netsol, Register.com, eNom, or one of the other domain registrars. Then, just point the domain to your hosting account. This way, if your host goes under or you decide to cancel your hosting account, you won't have to worry about losing your domain.

3. Good Client-Host Host-Client Relationship - As lame as it may sound, it helps to have a positive relationship with your host. You need to trust them 100%, and they need to trust you 100%. If this is not the case, neither one of you are benefiting the other, and it is a relationship that should be broken off.

4. Regular Website Updates - Want to know what irks users more than anything else? A website that never changes! Even if you have only five minutes a day to devote to managing your site, you should have some little tidbit of information that changes on a daily or weekly basis. Site visitors like to know that there is really a living, breathing thing on the other side of that website, and one way to convey this is by showing change.

5. Prompt Reply to Emails - Well, maybe this irks users more than anything else. It's probably a toss-up between points four and five. But the point is this: When someone sends you an email, they expect it to be answered right away. So answer it right away! If you can't do this, hire someone who can. One of the best things you can do for your company's image is to answer every single customer inquiry in a super-fast manner. Not only does this impress your customers, it also shows them that you truly care.

Follow this advice, and I guarantee you'll see more success from your web-based business!

Daniel J. Briere is the CEO of Netpreneur Host, a Web hosting and domain registration company for Webmasters and Internet entrepreneurs.

ColorImpact: Create Beautiful Color Schemes For Your Website With A Single Click

ColorImpact is an award winning software for creating harmonious color schemes. The program is based on the color wheel used by artists for centuries. The artist's use of complementary colors, or colors opposite on the color wheel, creates an exciting painting.

There are a lot of great tools in ColorImpact, such as Matching Colors Wheel, Color Variations, Color Blender and Test Patterns. The Main Menu area is like a control center for this program and lets you explore the color tools.

The color tools let you adjust colors in the palette in order to better suit your needs. For example, the Color Variations panel lets you add and modify variations to the colors in the color palette, while the Color Blender gives you the power to create intermediary colors between any two end colors.

But the most useful tool for niche website builders is the Color Composer, that allows you to experiment and see how your color schemes look when used on real web page designs.

Color Composer

The Color Composer is an advanced color scheme designer for web pages. The flexible user interface allows you to combine one of several html templates with a number of predefined and user defined color formulas or preselected colors.

Want a quick set of pleasantly looking and harmonious colors for your new website? Simply launch the Color Composer and pick a Formula Base Color. The base color window pops up. It is a flexible color picker that gives you full control when selecting the base color.

Pick the base color, and the Composer will instantly give you color suggestions for the following main elements of a webpage:

• Page Header: Background, Logo and Top Bar
• Sidebar: Background, Heading, Heading Background, Menu Item and Menu Item Background
• Content: Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3, Text, Background
• Links

Play with it! Pick colors from the Base Color circle and see how good the Composer is in selecting the best matches for webpage elements. When you're done, click File > Export Colors… and save you color scheme as a CSS file.

Creating a color scheme for your website has never been this easy!

Note: This review intentionally refers to an older version of the ColorImpact, known as ColorImpact Classic. Although, ColorImpact version 3 is available, in my opinion, the Color Composer in the Classic version is easier to use and more intuitive. Moreover, the ColorImpact Classic costs $20 less.

15-day trials are available for both versions of the program. The trials have no features disabled, so you can take advantage of them all while testing it. ColorImpact has a well organized and intuitive user interface and an extensive help documentation.

Andrei Mikrukov is the author of free Virtual Real Estate Toolbar for IE and Firefox. The toolbar provides over 100 tools to build and promote your niche content websites.

The Website that can Create Miracle!

Here are some simple tips to make your website really a booming one.
Before going into depth I want to discuss one more thing. Can you tell me why the website is very much important in today’s business scenario?

Yes you are right. It’s because of the time. In real time the global market place has no time to take a step physically towards its importance and the solution is undoubtedly the internet and if we consider the internet as the body then we have to consider that the websites are the ornaments.

Now, what do you think about a good example of website in terms of all? Confused?
Here is the simple answer for that.

The website should have the following points to entitle it as a miracle in terms of business prospective.

1. Unique look and feel

2. User friendly navigation area

3. Easy but professional contents

4. Search engine (like Google, Yahoo, msn…) friendly approach

5. Full of information

6. Straight forward and topic specific approach

7. Fastest downloading ability

These are the few things that can represent a good website. Though it needs proper intervention of the experts. Not to worry if you are new in this field. May be in future
You will be the expert of experts.

Arindam Chaudhuri, Master of computer application

Many high skilled freelancers in the field of web design

Color is often the last thing on the minds of website designers. We've all been subjected to websites with horrid color combinations. Yes, there are websites with purple text on a black background, and so on. You want people to view your website with ease. Hurting their eyes is bad for business.

What do you think when you visit a website with terrible color combinations? Your reaction is probably negative. Don't make this mistake with your website. Take time to carefully plan which colors you'll use for text, backgrounds, and links. You can increase your site's efficiency by paying attention to your color scheme.

The goal of any website is to attract and retain visitors. If your site's colors are headache inducing, visitors will run away screaming. Black text on a white background may not be exciting, but it's easy to read. That's why it's the best choice for reading text online. Visit any of the large, professionally designed sites and you'll see black text on a white or light background.

If unsure which colors fit together, look at a color wheel. You can get a list of RGB color values (or HEX values), and see which colors are appealing when grouped together. A color wheel will help you balance your color palette so all of the colors are complementary. Another thing to consider is the color of emotions.

Colors evoke emotions using what is called "color psychology". For example, white is often used to symbolize good. Purple is often used to symbolize royalty. And the most universal of them all is green, which often symbolizes money. Take this into account when choosing colors for your website. Also remember that different colors mean different things in certain parts of the world.

Here's a list of some colors and their positive and negative connotations:

Red

Positive: passion, strength, love

Negative: danger, blood, anger

Blue

Positive: stability, peace, confidence

Negative: coldness, obscenity, depression

Green

Positive: nature, wealth, fertility

Negative: inexperience, jealousy, greed

Yellow

Positive: sunlight, joy, idealism

Negative: hazards, cowardice, dishonesty

Purple

Positive: elegance, creativity, nobility

Negative: arrogance, profanity, confusion

Orange

Positive: energy, enthusiasm, playfulness

Negative: danger, warning, fire

White

Positive: purity, peace, security

Negative: sterility, defeat, cowardice

Black

Positive: power, sophistication, elegance

Negative: evil, death, mourning

The goal of marketing is to connect with the public. What better way to connect than emotionally? Color can help accomplish that goal. Color psychology may sound like a joke to some people, but it's been proven to work. By choosing the colors of your website based on color psychology, you can increase your sales.

The bottom line is you should pick your colors carefully. Don't pick a color just because you like it. Red may be your favorite color, but if your business is monetary issues, red may not be the best color for your site. You're free to try various color combinations, but remember the colors you choose may carry a set of preconceived notions.

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Importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in the Freelancing Field

Many high skilled freelancers in the field of web design
and web development doesn't give importance to SEO. For them
SEO is just a dirty web promotion technique and a waste of
time. Some of them are just concerned to the final output
of their web site, others are totally no idea about SEO.
Some of them can even produce fantastic websites but didn't
receive the deserved expossure for their site. and others
are too busy in web client hunting.

But wise freelancers who take advantage of SEO in their
freelancing are like packed rats, and ready for survival. They
know that applying SEO can bring them more chances of
clients.

If SEO rules and techniques are properly done, it will
produce a great result. Even looking for webclients is like
counting one, two, three. Since SEO will make your site high
in Search Engine Result Page (SERP), potential clients will
come to you automatically!

Not just looking for clients will be made easy but also
applying or making SEO as a part of your freelance services,
would be a great another source of income.
But before applying SEO. You must set your goals! You must
set your target keywords and must know your target
audience. Studying the most common search engine keywords and
studying your competitors techniques is a must.
SEO is easy but requires a lot of patience because the
result of your work is always based on the Search Engines
behaviour and the behaviour of your competitors.

But remember this, by applying your SEO knowledge doesn't
guarantee a continues web project from your prospect
clients. It will still based on your website appearance, website
portfolios and continues applying of SEO to your website to
keep its Search Engine ranking. Thinks SEO as a big back-up
help for your freelancing.

Glenn Dasmarinas is a Philippine based freelance web designer. Offering quality and affordable web design services with free basic SEO services to his clients. For more information please visit his website at http://www.gl3nnx.net , or email him at webmaster {at} gL3nnx.net

Focus & Information Overload - Internet Marketing Tips 3/3

All the tactics to fool the search engines are futile. We must play their game. We won't outsmart them. Their game is producing good, credible content around a tight niche. I can talk all day about on page and off page SEO strategies which I'm sure you know already.

....but working on one site for 1-6 months or even a year or more around your expertise and building your mailing list will lead to greater profits and personal satisfaction than building 20-100 sites in the same amount of time.

Figure out what about your work you like and which parts you eventually would like to give to someone else to do. Work towards eventually using other people’s time to get your goals accomplished. But even then, you need to know what you’re learning now to direct others to do what you want and at a price which is fair.

Think of your first year or two with IM (Internet Marketing) as going to college. Your rewards are your knowledge. Knowledge that will pay steady dividends in time

Here's a last tip. When you do what you like, it flows and you don't get as tired. When you feel bogged down, tired you are probably not doing what you love. Create a life around doing the things you love and success will come easier - and will have the added benefit of creating the emotions you would expect to have with that success.

It is a migration. You may not like everything about what you do right away. But by paying attention to your likes and dislikes, and finding creative ways to set yourself up, you will achieve a gradual migration from an empty life of just making money to a life of having fun with the inevitable byproduct of building wealth.

What good is all the gold in the world if you must sell your soul to get it?

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You know what I mean. Get started now and let's make 2006 our most successful year yet!

My name is Lawrence Touitou. I am a website designer and internet marketer. But while I do this as a professional I still very much consider myself a student.

I have been at it for several years and those who know me know can tell you that I am a quick study, and certainly not new to marketing, business, writing and knowing what works in the real world.

You may be surprised to know that a lot of the same tried and true principles that apply to offline business also apply to the internet. (So don't forget what you know.)

I don't believe in a lot of hocus-pocus, "get-rich-quick" schemes. I do however believe in creating wealth, knowing what works and being generous to others.

In the internet marketing arena, anyone with a strong desire to succeed, a willingness to learn, and some business sense can learn to do exactly what I do.

For more information and tips on Web Design, Internet Marketing or Online Publishing please visit myblueshoes.com.