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| 02 May 2008 07:10:26 am |
 Take Your Glasses off |
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Common Sense Notes to Make Your Site Easier to Read
What am I talking about? Well, you may have heard me or someone else use the word 'usability'.
Now, this covers a range of areas from helping people with visual impairment use your site to having panels of guests testing your website when purchasing items or finding products and services.
In fact it's a huge subject.
But let's just concentrate on some Quick 'n Easy stuff.
For example, if your HTML font is smaller than size '2' then some people will struggle with it. (In fact they won't struggle - they'll just bugger off and go somewhere else)
The problem is that lots of designers try and make sites look 'cool' but very often all it does is make your website harder to read.
Which means YOU WILL LOSE SALES. PERIOD.
A simple test I do when I'm asked to review a site is literally to take my glasses off.
If I can't easily see what I'm looking for - the site has failed.
A lot of sites have small fonts or grey fonts on a white background. Again to look cool. And again it's a pain in the backside if you can't see well.
It's not just blind people.
It's people that might be old, or tired, or haven't got their glasses on or their contacts in or they could just be plain hung over.
And believe me, when I'm hung over, looking at a poncy website that makes my head spin to get the material I need won't be on my list of sites to re-visit.
Ok - if you're Disney or if you're a graphic designer and your website has to be seen to be slick and cool and whatever then you might want to do show off.
But definitely not if you're anything like me and just want to get more business.
For example, I get loads of people telling me how 'basic' my website looks. For someone that's been making websites and working with the internet since 1997 I know it could 'look' a lot better.
But - I know my site statistics and I know it works. I'm on the homepage of Google world wide for my choice of key phrases and it converts at almost 20%.
So, my 'basic' and naff site is staying put.
I used to have all that fancy stuff and it didn't work and so I know better. Because I want a site that works more than a site that looks 'trendy'.
Motorway signs don't look 'trendy' but they bloody well work!
Pretty websites don't sell. Good content, easy navigation & strong calls to action do.
I *strongly* suggest you trust me on this.
In general, your potential customers couldn't give a monkey's about what your site looks like - they just want to know what you can do for them - and get the information that they're looking for as fast as possible.
You can address other usability issues if you want - such as offering the ability to change font size or colour for visually impaired people.(Contact me if you want more info)
But what I'm trying to say here is just keep your content simple and straightforward. I suggest you don't try and show off - it rarely works.
Concentrate your time instead on getting more decent content because your time will be well spent.
10 Quick Tips for making your website easier to read and use:
1 - Make the navigation simple - along the top or left hand side of your website.
2 - Use a sensible sized font throughout. Use black on white.
3 - Have a search box if your website is big - and put the search box at the TOP of the site where it can quickly be found.
4 - Use underlines for links. Or at least make them look like links.
5 - Put your important stuff at the top of the site(above the 'fold').
6 - Put your contact details at the top - on every page. Not really usability but a very good idea and it makes a bigger difference than you'd think.
7 - Don't disable the "Back" button. Sooooo annoying!
8 - Break Long text into short paragraphs and text - like this email!
9 - Use short column widths - again like in this email!
10 - Have a Site Map.(Great for SEO too)
Why not learn how to get the most out of your website and make more money?
(I'm offering a f-r-e-e month's trial to our training system)
- Checkout http://www.mklink.com/freetrial/ to get More Tips & Advice.
'till next time,
Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips
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Category : General
| By : mklink |  Comments [0] |  Trackbacks [0] |
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| 14 Apr 2008 11:00:19 pm |
| A Tip to Beat a Recession:Outsource Cheap Traffic |
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Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/ for more internet marketing tips.
How can You Beat a Recession?
Well, the MKLINK school of economics would suggest that the quickest way to maintain profits is to reduce overhead. Especially un-necessary overheads.
I've already shown you dozens of ways to increase your conversion rate and I'll continue to do so. But you need to keep costs down and maintain traffic if possible.
When times are easy, you can be more cavalier with your spending but when times are tough, you need to keep costs low.
Obviously, you'll want to be keeping a close eye on any pay per click campaigns you've got running and making sure your Click Through Rate and landing page is optimised. If that's all new to you - checkout my training course at http://www.mklink.com/training/
However, what I'm suggesting today is that you get more free natural search engines traffic from the likes of Google, for lower cost.
As you know, in order to get higher up the search engines, there are 3 basic things that you really need to have 3 things to really get ahead :
1) Unique, compelling and keyword rich content.
2) Have this self same content updated on a regular basis.
3) Have as many INBOUND LINKS to your website as possible.
(Preferably from relevant sites/blogs/directories/chatrooms etc)
The problem we keep coming up against is that our clients simply never have time to create and supply us with content!
Or they start off well, but soon taper off and it gets forgotten sooner rather than later(Know the pattern?)
Or they do actually get round to doing it it themselves but they could be working on other more important parts of their business.
Or they can't afford to to it because their web designer or copywriter etc. makes it inaffordable.
Or whatever.
So it doesn't get done.
Consequently, you can have have the best search engine optimised website in the universe but without those 3 ingredients, then at best any existing Google raking you may currently have may well be short lived.
So how do you get round this?
Easy - outsource it abroad. (That's what I do!)
Part of the 'fun' of going to Kenya during Christmas/New Year of 2007/2008(and trying to get back again with my head on my shoulders) was to hold interviews and get some really good candidates.
I'm talking about degree students and graduates, for a fraction of the price you'd pay in Europe. People that WANT to work and are eager to create a good impression.
Now, I'm not suggesting you risk life and limb going to 'exotic' countries(especially during a civil war) but you can obviously make use of companies available to you.
If you'd like some prices for this, just forward your name and number via my contact page
http://www.mklink.com/contact2.php?source=newsletter and I'll see what I can do.
Anyway moving on, it's easy enough - you simply research the keywords that you need to be found for and then create articles based on your business (and also by researching your competitors as well)
This way, not only can you add content and value to your website, but you can
ALSO add content to external sites, blogs, newgroups, industry & PR Sites,
article directories and social networking sites in order that you get external sites linking to your main website.
This way, you'll be seen as the industry leader and consequently be ahead of
the game PLUS get lots of inbound links that increase your Google Score.
(The good news is that it isn't expensive and as that virtually no-one else bothers to do it, you'll be light years ahead.
Once you've had the copy created for you you can of course add to it or edit it if you wish. It's a lot easier to edit a newspaper than to write it all.
So, you can either do it all yourself or have the lions share of the spade work done for you so that you can leverage your time better.
Don't worry about the graphic design - we're talking about brute-forcing traffic from the search engines, not creating a Disney Film.
Just create a standard template page with obvious contact details at the top and a strong call to action at the bottom and then make sure that anyone working on your behalf knows what you want them to do.
It's not rocket science and yet it has a huge impact on your free traffic for a fraction of the usual cost.
Like I said - if you need a quote for this - visit
http://www.mklink.com/contact2.php?source=newsletter
and we'll see what's what.
Would you like more Internet Marketing Tips?
Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/ or maybe you need the ULTIMATE Package of All Time http://www.mklink.com/report.php
'till next time,
Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips
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Category : General
| By : mklink | Comments [0] | Trackbacks [0] |
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| 01 Apr 2008 08:04:01 am |
| How to Promote Resellers of Your Services |
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I've already told you that you can multiply your online portfolio with micro-sites.
You also know that you need to build inbound links to get better Google Rankings.
Why not get the ultimate inbound links...get other people to promote your products and services on their websites?
Why would they do that?
Well, apart from the benefits offered by mutual cooperation, synergy and developing the business brand, it's because you can offer to pay them!
Now I'm (sort of) talking about affiliation but I'd like to go beyond it really, into the mind set behind it.
As you probably know, affiliation is where you track visitors that were sent to your website by someone else's website or blog or email etc with software.
Most people just assume that this only works with a product based website.
Cobblers!
I also mentioned that it's a great idea to develop a relationship with your website visitors and try and get their name and email address so that you can communicate with them over time and increase your chances of doing business.
Loads of people say to me "That wouldn't apply to me as I sell directly to the public and they want something there and then".
This may or may not be true. Let's say you sell car spares online.
You could argue that someone who needed a replacement ignition module for their Ford Escort just wants a part and a price and would never be interested in signing up for email newsletters.
You'd very possibly be right.
But what about other business people that are in a similar industry to you and would get benefit from not only teaming up with you but receiving valuable information?
The fact is that most people are so hell bent on getting customers to their websites that they completely neglect to look after other people that would resell their products and services, either directly or indirectly.
As a business person of whatever kind, which supplier's services would you rather promote : someone who contacts you regularly with useful info or someone who just doesn't bother.
Like I said, I'm not just talking about sites that sell products.
For example, say you ran an accountancy firm. How helpful would it be to receive regular tips from a website that specialises in business law?
You'd certainly be more receptive to putting a link on your website to drive traffic to them. Especially if the traffic was tracked by software so that you could see how many leads you'd sent them and see how much commission you were earning from any leads that materialised.
It's really quite simple to set this up but what almost everyone forgets is to regularly communicate with their partners.
Pity, because unless you communicate with your network of resellers, affiliates and link network, your network will never achieves it's full potential.
MKLINK offers commission and the ability to track :
How many people visit our website from an affiliate link.
How many people sign up sign-up to our Marketing Tips Newsletter.
How many people join our training programme at http://www.mklink.com/freetrial/
If you think other would like to receive my newsletter and would like to create an income stream from your website or emails, visit : http://mklink.com/affiliate_signup1.php
Something I once read: "The value of Your Net Worth is in Your NETWORK"
It works for me and my business, why not try it with yours?
Why not give it a try?
- Checkout http://www.mklink.com/freetrial/ to get More Tips & Advice.
'till next time,
Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips
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Category : General
| By : mklink | Comments [0] | Trackbacks [0] |
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| 18 Mar 2008 10:00:57 am |
| Benefits of adding a Forum to Your Website. |
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Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/ for more internet marketing tips
What is a Forum?
You'll have almost certainly seen them before and you might know them as
discussion boards, message boards, notice boards, bulletin boards or other names.
They enable people in your industry or niche to interact with your website and post questions and answers or just plain write articles.
Why bother with a forum?
I've jotted some reasons down below but primarily because you'll get more business!
Get more Traffic.
Search engines like forums because they contain relevant content are are updated
regularly and so are re-indexed often.
More traffic = More potential customers
Get more RETURNING traffic.
Half the battle on the web is getting people to return to your website as often as possible. This helps develop familiarity and trust.
A forum will help do this because people want to see what the response their questions and answers. Or even just because they want to stay updated in general.
This breeds loyalty and brand awareness.
Get more Inbound Links.
As your forum develops more content and become more valuable to your community, more and more inbound links will appear from other people's websites, blogs and indeed notice boards.
More Links = Better Search Engine Rankings.
Market Research.
Because people in your industry can interact with the site, you get to see directly what your people are interested in and what's hot and what's not.
In response, you can react accordingly and adjust your website or even business to start offering what they want. In markets where products and services evolve quickly this can be invaluable in staying ahead of the trends.
Ongoing Development.
the way to continually learn and develop your understanding of your marketplace is to continually immerse yourself in it and a forum is a great way to do this.
You'll learn things you didn't know and develop a greater understanding of things that you already do know. No-one knows everything and getting other people's advice and opinions (for free!) is invaluable.
Keyword Research.
As the forum is usually about your industry, the content of it can be a goldmine of key phrases that you might not have thought about to use to attract more niche search
traffic. It's the ultimate feedback - you're giving the search engines exactly what people are interested in!
If you do nothing else, just having the keywords on the forum itself will attract more traffic anyway for these key phrases.
Give People what They WANT.
The key to generating business online is to give people what they want not just try and sell to them. A forum does just that - it gives them the information they want or offers them the opportunity to ask for it directly!
Be seen as an industry Leader.
Rather than having 'just another website' the same as everyone else, you'll be seen
as the pro-active leader in your field that people will refer to.
The people who get ahead aren't necessarily the ones that know everything about their industry, they're the ones that share what they know about their industry.
Capture Contact Details
Typically, people have to register to join a forum, so you'll gain their email address and name. With this, you'll be able to email directly with forum members once they've joined the forum and consequently you'll be able to communicate with them more and sell more.
Additionally, as they'll have heard of you by now, they'll be MUCH more likely
to buy from you than if they were 'cold'.
Communicate More = Sell More.
Networking opportunities.
Message boards can be a fantastic way of developing networking opportunities with customers, suppliers and other people in your industry that you might want to joint venture with.
You can promote other people's products or better still, encourage other people to sell your products.
Add Interactivity to your Website.
People like interactivity. Interactivity brings people closer to your website and psychologically makes them more involved with it and ultimately you. Forums are a way of encouraging interactivity and lets visitors not feel as though they're being 'sold to'.
Many hands make Light Work
A lot of the Hard work is done for you! By having lots of other people add content to your website by using the forum, you website gets more content and develops and you don't have to create all the articles and content yourself!
Now I can See why a Forum is so Powerful - How do I get One?
I use a freely available bit of software call PHPBB.
A free forum program you can use(if you web server supports PHP)
is PHPBB.
It's free and the most widely used forum software on the web.
Visit http://www.phpbb.com/ to download it. You can also register for a hosted forum if you want where you won't have to bother installing the software yourself.
Would you like more Internet Marketing Tips?
- Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/ today.
'till next time,
Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips
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Category : General
| By : mklink | Comments [0] | Trackbacks [0] |
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| 03 Mar 2008 07:00:47 pm |
| A Subtle Benefit of Adding Audio to your Website |
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A Subtle Benefit of Adding Audio
Why Bother?
We live in a multimedia age and we are multimedia creatures.
Listening is part of life for everyone that is fortunate enough not
to be deaf.
One very good reason that you might at least want to test adding
audio out for yourself is that it may well increase your conversion
rate.
So you'll get more sales for the same cost.
I'm not saying it will, I'm saying it might.
You'll have to test for yourself to see whether or not it does.
I mentioned quite recently some tips and ideas about using YouTube
to video clips on your website. Well, if you're an ugly bugger like
me then maybe adding audio clips is the next best thing!
There are various bits of software and things you can use to add
audio clips to your website. Many of these use FLASH to create
buttons and then streams sound.
Perhaps it's just me but I don't really like them.
Personally, I find it just as easy to make a little animated GIF
image, record whatever it is that I want to record, save it as an
MP3 file and link it up directly.
Anyone who wants to listen to the clip will be able to play, pause
rewind or stop with whatever software their PC uses and is involed
when clicking on the image.
If I visit a site that starts playing someone's voice or audio
straight away without asking me first to click a button, I almost
always leave the page straight away as it can annoy not only me but
also the person sat next to me.
(Again - your customers may well be different to me so don't take
my word for it - you'll need to test this for yourself)
However, one bit of software that won't cost a bean and is
fantastic is audacity
it's available at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
This will enable you to edit your recording by getting rid of
background noises,
coughs or splutters or indeed increase quiet parts of the recording
and generally cleanup your audio. There's a few special effects as
well and it's fun to have a play with it.
As anyone on my internet marketing training course will appreciate,
I mumble and stumble a lot so this software comes in very handy
before my recordings are posted out on CD-ROM or published to the
web.
Selling AWAY from your Website.
However, the main reason that I like to add audio to my website and
make some sample seminars available to visitors is that life is
very hectic these days.
Consequently, I don't really expect everyone to be listen to me at
work or even read my website at work.
As lots of people on my training course have said how useful it is
to be able to listen to me whilst driving to work on their CD
Player or walking along using their IPOD, I make samples available
to potential members as well.
This is exactly why I offer a 45 minute AUDIO entitled "7 Internet
Marketing Secrets" which anyone can download and listen to once
they join my mailing list.
It's at http://www.mklink.com/free/Seven_Strategies_Seminar.mp3 if
you haven't heard it yet by the way.
Anyway, what this means for me is that people can learn the the
benefits of what I offer about increasing their internet marketing
knowledge, away from the office or indeed a PC if they wish.
How useful would it be able to sell to your clients when they are
AWAY from their computers as well as when they're on your website?
And when I say "Sell" I don't mean a 20 minute list of how
marvellous your product or service is. I mean simply letting
potential customers know all the things that your product or
service can do and listing the benefits.
It's simply another dimension to helping yourself by helping other
people.
If you help them they'll want to listen to you.
Conversly, If you're just selling without helping then they won't.
Not surprising really.
So, here's a thought.
Get a Microphone(they start at less than a fiver) - or just use an
existing webcam.
Download the Audacity Freeware.
Give your potewntial customers some useful tips and benefits of
using you.
Why not give it a try?
Until next time...
- Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/ to get More Tips &
Advice.
'till next time,
Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips
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Category : General
| By : mklink | Comments [0] | Trackbacks [0] |
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