Professional website developers know the importance of web design and the role it plays in making a website successful. Designing a successful website is no easy task, especially for someone who is new to the world of web development. With the help of web development applications many people can and do create decent websites. But decent in most cases is not good enough to make a site successful from a traffic or financial standpoint.

There are five crucial components of web design that you must focus on in order to make a site valuable to its visitors and successful for you.

- SEO – Getting free traffic to your site.
- Usability – Ease of navigating around the site and finding desired information quickly.
- Aesthetics – Visual appeal.
- Content – Valid, up to date, relevant information
- Graphics – Eye candy that relays relevant visual information to the visitor.

SEO
Before you ever lay down a byte of HTML code for a site you have to know and understand at least the basics of SEO and how it fits into the design. SEO is the art of designing a site in a fashion that gives the site an advantage for obtaining free and abundant traffic.

The number one aspect of SEO is selecting keywords relevant to your site. The keywords you select should be based on high usage, low competition and relevancy to your topic. Once you select keywords you can then begin the development of your site. Keep in mind keywords are a critical aspect of the design. The keywords you choose will be applied within the design in strategic fashion to benefit the flow of traffic to your site. To understand more on how to implement SEO you should read and learn more about this important subject. If you don’t, your website success will be difficult to achieve.

Usability
Your website must be easy to navigate and designed in a way that makes it easy to find information. Visitors will not stay long if it takes more than one or two clicks to get the information they want or if it takes brain power to figure out how to get the information they want. One of the goals of your site design is to keep usability easy, and simple. To do this, apply the following three fundamentals of usability.

* Provide a site search tool. A visitor in a hurry can quickly find the info they desire then move on to the action they desire.
* Provide simple, intuitive and consistent site navigation.  This provides visitors the tool they need to leisurely explore their way through your site.
* Provide logical and simple to follow content. The message of a site should start off in a simple and basic fashion with well defined links pointing the way to more detailed information or explanation as needed.

In the cases above the goal is to make it easy for your visitor to find the information they want without frustration or difficulty. Doing this well will have a positive effect on increasing the return of your visitors.

Aesthetics
A website has to look clean, uncomplicated and strike a balance in layout that is pleasant to the visitor. Pleasing aesthetics come about when the colors of a site complement each other, the graphics blend and lend continuation of the theme and the layout brings unity and openness to the page.

Often overlooked by novice designers is the color palette of the site. While you can select color in a willy-nilly fashion and still provide a visually appealing site, a better idea for color selection should be based on an understanding of the color wheel and proven color strategies.

Many web designers often view a web page as an opportunity to blast a visitor with lots of information in hopes this will convince the visitor to take action. Usually this results in a quick exit due to the overwhelming visual effect and complicated look. A better approach is to provide less content and open space (referred to as white space) to allow visitors eyes to scan and explore with ease.

Content
An important feature of any website is the quality of the text content. Visitors come to a site expecting to find answers to their questions, solutions to their problems or for entertainment value. The content offered at your site must be well-written, without grammatical or spelling errors. It also has to be relevant to the theme of your site, with valid, up to date information for your visitors. Content is King!

Graphics
You can have a functional and usable website without graphic elements. However, if there are similar sites to yours that employ graphics, guess which site will get the most traffic. The necessary companions to any well-designed site are the images and illustrations that grace its pages. The images can’t be any willy-nilly graphic that you might think is cool. Graphic imagery has to support your branding, and communicate the message you are trying to convey. Before you incorporate graphic elements into your site, take some time to look around the web. Notice what looks good and how elements are laid out. These same layouts techniques can be used as models for your site.

The Internet is a highly competitive business arena. To be successful with a commercial website, you have to keep these five crucial web design elements in mind. Contrary to what many will tell you, it is rarely possible to have commercial success without the benefit of a professional website. This is not to say that you must hire a professional, however you must implement professional design elements to improve your chances for success.

Share on Facebook

How to make money? This is the question that most of us want answer to. In today’s world, no matter how much you make, it just doesn’t seem enough. But thankfully, the same world offers us so many new opportunities to make money.

Everybody today knows what websites are. But unfortunately not many know that its also very profitable. I suppose the main reason being that people who know how profitable they are just don’t want any competition. So they keep us away from this wonderful opportunity by spreading wrong facts about websites being expensive, really hard to build and maintain.

This article, hopefully, will prove them all wrong and show you exactly how to build a website, how to maintain it and how to profit from it. This article will cover the basic steps. Look for my other articles that I’ll be posting soon for more details.

So here are the 5 basic steps:

1) Select a topic
2) Register a domain
3) Buy web space
4) Build and maintain pages
5) Monetize

Let me elaborate.

1) Select a topic
To begin, you need to think up a topic on which you are going to build a website (this step is also called keyword research). It can be anything. But make sure its something you know about because you’ll have to write on this topic to build your pages. Once you have a topic (that you know or that you know you can write about or you think you can have someone write it for you) selected, its time to move onto the next step. Select keywords that have enough demand yet not so much competition. For your keyword research use the following free tool: Free Keyword Tool

2) Register a domain
Your website needs a domain so that people can access it. Domain, simply put, is the name people must type in the address bar of their browser to view your site. Now there are hundreds of domain sellers, so select anyone, it doesn’t really matter. But of course, charges are different so you want to go for a cheap one.

3) Buy web space
Now this is the most essential part. Your site needs space to store its pages and files. That’s why you need to buy some web space. Again, there are hundreds out there who offer web spaces (also called web hoster), but in this case, it does matter who you buy from. Firstly, make sure they offer you enough space. 500MB+ should be good enough. But most web hosting companies allows only 1 domain. This means that only one website can use this space. So make sure that you select a host that offers 5+ domain hosting since you’ll be able to host more site on the same space and reap more profits. Next, make sure they offer good amount of bandwidth. Bandwidth is the amount of data send and received. Select a host that offers a good amount of bandwidth since then your sites will load quicker and support larger traffic (users).

4) Build and maintain pages
Once your site is all setup, you need to build your site. Most web hosting companies offer you with free tools to help you with it. Its just a lot of clicking to select the template of your choice, placing images and in the end of course typing in the content for you site. Make the content unique and attractive to make people keep coming back to your site. Also make it a habit to update it regularly (once a week is good enough unless concerned with daily changes).

5) Monetize
Final step is to monetize your site. Sign up for affiliate programs and link up to those affiliate programs (make sure they are related to your site’s topic). Sign up for Google AdSense to have ads appear on your site. You get earn a small amount whenever a visitor to your site clicks on any of the ads. You can also link to other people’s site to increase traffic. You can also sell ad space in your pages to companies willing to pay for having their ads appear on your site.

Well there you have it. 5 steps all laid out well. So go on and follow these steps today!

Share on Facebook

The popularity of web 2.0 is spreading like wild forest fire in the world of internet. Yet many people are not aware of the benefits of this concept. They take it as meaningless thing but in reality web 2.0 is an effective tool for web surfing, online marketing, networking and so on.

With advent of web 2.0, it has paved the way for newer concepts and browsing styles. The power of interaction has improved drastically which is essential for making powerful base for application development. There are different new applications like tagging, dragging, dropping, RSS, slide transitions and many more that were unknown to the users earlier but now they are getting explored and being used.

Web 2.0 can be stated as latest tool in web economy that is the result of newly formed activity between the website and the service providers. It can be also stated as social element that has been extracted from new types of social communities and networks. This technology builds up an online platform where global information is made available to people providing flexibility in organizing, sharing and creating the information in acceptable format.

Here you can advertise or publicize your products or services in novel ways which you have not even thought before. Now product promotion is not just limited to banner advertisements, it can be done through blogs and other interactive features. When a product is featured on a blog or podcast that has big visitors base, it is likely to get many bookmarks to the respective website, thus doing online advertising.

You can also except more amount of web traffic to your website, but if it is not directed in a correct manner than it can get wasted. Having a properly designed web page with relevant information helps.

The websites that have been designed using web 2.0 is considered as a strong sales magnet due to active customer participation and better connectivity with other websites. They are much stronger than traditionally designed type websites, where sales was not higher as targeted.

Web 2.0 helps in establishing stronger relationship with the clients. You can even distribute many varieties of products altogether. Even you can advertise and publicize your products and services to all your imaginable markets. Products/services can also be distributed in many ways, where not only selling but also sharing, testing and personalizing can be done. You can attract large number of prospective customers thus giving way for higher sales.

Share on Facebook

In the last decade the internet has been used for many purposes. The underlying design of the internet has made it a great tool for sharing information and communicating ideas. Before the internet was used for selling goods or advertising anything it was used for communication. todays forums come from yesterdays bulletin board systems. It was not long before these bulletin board systems for local people to communicate with each other became todays internet chat rooms. Instant communication at long distance via text chatting became the norm when companies like AOL serviced the lion share on internet users. This type of instant text communication evolved into instant messengers like AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo Communicator. At the same time this revolution in instant long distance communication took place website owners the world over added chat rooms to their websites.

The general idea is that people would want to come back to their website frequently to chat if they had a chat room. In todays world chat rooms are almost a thing of the past. Chat rooms have become live voice-chat enabled environments like SecondLife.com. This however does not mean chat applications do not have a place on your website. In fact quite the contrary, chat applications have gotten better over time. As the web has evolved website owners are finally figuring out the correct place for live chat to exist on a web page.

Chat should exist right on the front page of your site, or at least on the frequently asked questions and contact pages. Instead of chat rooms Live chat applications like ChatStat.com run right on your computers browser and allow you to interact with your website visitors.

Programs like ChatStat can create the same instant gratification of one on one communication through your website, and with better features than any chat room. Live chat applications for instance can interface with other instant messengers like AIM or Jabber. Some can even translate between languages and tell you what website the person you are chatting with is looking at.

This one on one communication in real time on your website is invaluable. You have the opportunity to invite everyone who visits your site (while you are awake) to chat. You can anwser questions, or even direct them to the right page. When you are not online ready to chat you can have the person leave you a message to call them back in the same place your “chat now” button would be.

Live chat can turn a simple browsing visitor into a pleased visitor or even a buyer. Chat rooms may not have been best idea for every website (after all who is going to use a chat room on a used car website?) but instant messaging is here to stay on cell phones, desktops and websites.

Share on Facebook

In view of the global economic crisis, outsourcing IT services has been largely viewed as one of the most viable and cost-effective solutions – a process that has grown more popular with each passing year. While it may offer you a cheaper alternative to in-house development, it would still mean a considerable investment. So before you choose the right outsourcing partner for BPO and IT services, it would be practical to take time and define first your expectations and requirements. By having a clear definition of what outsourcing relationship would best fit your current setup, you will have a more definite idea on what you want.
Before you place your signature along the dotted lines, take the time ask yourself the following questions:

Does the offshore company have an extensive experience in the particular service you would want to outsource?

Does the IT outsource service provider have a good record in providing quality services to companies such as yours?

Does the company make use of the best infrastructure, software and technology?

Do they have quality and competent professionals who possess experience and required trainings to efficiently handle your projects?

The following are some helpful tips that you can consider in choosing the right outsourcing partner. These tips can significantly help you ensure that you find the best offshore partner for your company.

1. Check for proven track records
Like any other type of business, it would be a good idea to scout and make some background check on the service provider you are interested to outsource. Take time to find out more the experience they have and the projects they have handled and completed in the past.

2. Ask for references
Before agreeing to a service contract, make sure to ask your prospective outsourcing partner to provide you reference to help you determine the quality of services they offer. Don’t be shy about calling up clients and asking pertinent questions such as turnaround time, responsibility and any other issues you may need to know. After all, there is nothing like first hand information such as from clients like you.

3. Check for financial stability and good credentials
It is equally important to find out if your future outsourcing company is stable and financially secure. Note that this is actually a critical factor that most people fail to consider. By having such information you have a better informed if your provider can match up your expectations.

4. Ensure cultural compatibility
An outsourcing partner basically acts as an extension of your organization. This will naturally require you work and coordinate closely with them. Hence, it would be necessary for you to take into consideration cultural compatibility. Take time to make them understand your organization and how you operate.

5. Ask your outsourcing partner for samples
Of course, reviewing sample work and portfolio is one of the most practical ways to check the competency of your service provider. For web design and development services, most companies have an online portfolio on their site. This will give you a more concrete idea on the company’s IT capabilities, level of quality and technical expertise.

6. Communicate with your outsourcing partner
Communication is an important factor in ensuring seamless coordination. Make sure your provider speaks your language and the communication channels they are offering. Having good communication is vital to forging a good working partnership.

7. Check your outsourcing partner’s infrastructure and technology
It would also be a good idea if you can pay your prospective partner’s development facility to personally check if they are using the best of breed infrastructure and the latest technology.

Share on Facebook