A key ingredient to almost ALL business websites are the quality of their images and graphics. It’s a known fact that most web surfers sum up a page in under 10 seconds. If they don’t like what they see, they move on to something else.

I’ve worked on websites where the clients have supplied their own images…both photographic and graphic (in the form of logos etc). When the images are poor quality or low resolution, it adds an aura of unprofessionalism to the site and makes the initial development much more challenging.

FREE PHOTOGRAPHY SESSION

As a photographer, I like to see my potential clients start off with the best material and content that they possibly can – so I generally (time permitting) offer a free photography session as the first part of each business interaction.

The pictures are then uploaded to a website for pre-viewing by the client with the permission to download and use them freely, providing they leave the watermark intact (at the very least this generates some free advertising for me as a photographer).

If they like the finished product, they have an option to purchase the images in super high resolution and watermark free so they can be used for advertising brochures, shop fascias, magazine editorials, business cards, television ads and even giant billboards.

WEBSITE AND PHOTOGRAPHY PACKAGE

>> SAMPLE BUSINESS WEBSITE – Take a look at a sample website that is part of a very affordable package and see how a simple slideshow with high quality pictures makes a great impression.

http://kushkush.south-gippsland.biz/.

>> BUSINESS ADVERTISEMENT – Here you can find a sample advertisement created by using quality images.

http://kushkush.south-gippsland.biz/sample-advertisement/.

>> CATALOGUES FOR YOUR BUSINESS – Would you like a stylish or elegant product catalogue, flyer of brochure created for your business? Take at look at this one.

http://kushkush.south-gippsland.biz/free-catalogue/.

>> BUSINESS FLYERS AND BROCHURES – More and more of my clients are asking if I’ll design brochures. Although I’ve never done a graphic design course, when I work with photographs the skills seem to come naturally to create something appropriately suited to that particular business. Here is a small sample done for Kush Kush.

http://kushkush.south-gippsland.biz/business-brochures/

>> WEBSITE PACKAGE DEALS – If you are interested, you can also read about the currently available packages which include a FREE domain name and the first year of website hosting.

http://kushkush.south-gippsland.biz/about/.

>> HAPPY CUSTOMERS – By the way, the client I’ve created these quality promotional materials for is so delighted, her last email read, “I am absoultely blown out by what you do with my shop…I love it.
Leigh will be rapped to the back teeth. Thank you so much,
Jan from kushkush.com.au

If you have any questions, feel free to phone me on 0459 675251 during regular business hours or use the CONTACT FORM.

Disadvantages of Free Websites ….

… They often have limited space and capabilities.

… You generally can’t make money from advertising revenue.

… Can’t add useful and interactive features like shopping carts, contact forms, traffic counters, chat rooms, forums, message boards, games, online ordering etc.

… Search engines sometimes ignore them. A HUGE disadvantage!

… Your visitors will probably doubt your credibility and might NOT take you seriously.

… Your FREE site may have banners and/or pop-up ads that make money for the big guys – but NOT YOU!

… Long and difficult to remember web address (like yourname.freewebs.com).

… No guarantees of longevity. If your so-called FREE website disappears overnight, there’s NOTHING you can do about it.

… No branded email addresses (you@yourname.com.au).

… Poor help and support options (if any).

… Might not be free forever. I’ve heard of one example where the host suddenly started charging a fee to stay (which most people paid to avoid the hassle of moving.

… If you want to upload extra pages of pictures, you might get sugged with a charge to do so too.

Advantages of Owning Your Own Domain Name …

… Easy to remember website address (yoursite.com.au)

… No banners or popups that make money for someone else.

… Much easier to get found in google searches.

… You have more control over the look and feel of your website and can add plugins and scripts for useful features like contact forms, shopping carts, forums etc.

… You can often have as many branded email addresses (like you@yoursite.com.au) as you like and usually more than you’ll ever need.

… Plenty of space for expanding the site and storing your photos, documents, articles etc.

… Don’t have to worry about the site being removed unexpectedly.

… Looks more professional and your customers will take you seriously.

… You can implement useful features like automatic sitemap submissions, so the search engines know instantly you’ve updated your content.

… Much more flexibility for design, usefulness and functionality with plenty of themes available, both free and premium.

… Your web host generally has a 24/7 support desk if you get into strife and SOME have superb service records and do much more than required to assist you wherever possible.

YELLOW PAGES

- Submit your free listing in the Yellow Pages who are probably one of the most recognized names in the industry. They have several different levels of advertising available but the basic listing is FREE.

GOOGLE MAPS

- List you business and display your advertising on Google Maps. Highly recommended.

TRUE LOCAL

- List your business for FREE on True Local which is a useful Australian Business Directory whose results sometimes appear in searches. This professional marketing company also phones you directly to confirm your listing. You have an option to upgrade your account to a paid and larger listing but for most purposes the regular free listing is all you’ll need.

HOT FROG

- Another useful website where you can list your Australian business FREE is hotfrog. It only takes a few minutes to set up your advertisement and choose your keywords. You business details go public as soon as your email address has been confirmed. These listings placed on hot frog are often seen very high in searches. Highly recommended.

GOOGLE LOCAL

- Create an account on Google LocaL. Enter your company name, address, phone number and website. Verify the information with a post-a-card, SMS or telephone call. At the same time you can bring new customers into your business by using the free Google coupon tool that puts your advertisement on relevant local searches.

FACEBOOK

- Start a facebook page and find other people from your local area and others in your industry. Share your success stories or ask for advice. Join groups that interest you and contribute to the conversations. Some people use facebook to network, some just for friendship. I’ve personally found it to be extremely effective for promoting my photography, writing and life coaching businesses, and if it’s a place you enjoy to hang out, your time and effort could well be rewarded too.

MAKE USEFUL COMMENTS ON BLOGS AND FORUMS

- It’s amazing how much business can be generated by adding value to people in your local community. I regularly contribute useful material to other business forums like flying solo small business forum and webmaster blogs. There’s no need to self promote, in fact self promotion is often frowned upon and your comments may even be deleted. Just contribute to discussions by giving relevant and useful information and many people will become curious by your generosity and follow the link back to your website

SOUTH GIPPSLAND INFORMATION WEBSITE

- If you live in South Gippsland, Victoria,  Australia, you can freely advertise your business, products, services, events, functions and any location relevant news or articles as many times as you like at the South Gippsland Information Website.

YAHOO LOCAL BUSINESS DIRECTORY

- Display your products, create press releases and articles and build your own free mini website with Yahoo Local Business Directory. People searching for your business or industry can generally find your free listing quite easily.

YAHOO REVIEWS

- An important segment of the Yahoo Local listings are the reviews. Ask your good customers to write reviews for you on Yahoo local. Businesses with higher ratings apparently get preferential listings.

YAHOO ANSWERS

- Have you ever searched for something and found it on ‘yahoo answers‘? I have. Here’s an idea. If you check out what questions remain unanswered (or open) and they relate to your business, you can answer them and leave a link back to the source…which could be your own website. Answers that get rated as the best (it’s pretty easy) get high preference in searches and could create extra traffic for years to come.

LINKWIZZ

- Write your own business advertisement with Linkwizz - Australian Business Directory. They also have other tiers of advertising available, but as yet I’m unsure how effective it is.

BLOGS

- Start A Blog with WordPress, LiveJournal or Blogger and use the Freely available Blog Promotion Tools. Talk about topics on your new blog that relate to your business and help other people find out more about your industry. Websites like Technorati and mybloglog can help you gain exposure, visitors, readers, and subscribers, but it does need to be maintained with quality and interesting content.

SQUIDOO

- Create a lens at Squidoo that talks about the stuff you sell, then create another one for each product and link them all together.  Make a lens for your blog or website. For some other really creative ideas go to 49 Ideas For Awesome Lenses.

LINKEDIN

- Join LinkedIn and invite some people you know to join you. Make new connections with people you don’t know through introductions or writing answers to peoples question on the new Questions & Answers page and be genuinely helpful.

FLYERS ON LOCAL NOTICEBOARDS

- Putting up some flyers on noticeboards in your local area only costs some time and effort. Instead of doing a blatant business promotion like most people, offer to teach a free class on your chosen field of expertise, offer a free quote or run a competition. Find creative ways to get attention that are just slightly different to the ‘norm’.

TEACH A CLASS AT YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY CENTER

- Most of our local community houses are looking for tutors willing to teach about any subject that other people might be interested in learning. Besides being a paid job, it is an excellent way for other people to realise your level of expertise, and they will often tell their friends.

The Internet is a world wide collection of networks, both big and small. These networks connect together in many different ways to form the what we know as the Internet. In fact, the name comes from the phrase “interconnected networks”. One of the most interesting things about the Internet is that nobody really owns it.

Every computer that is connected to the Internet is part of a network, even the one in your home. For example, you may use a modem and dial a local number to connect to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or maybe you use satellite broadband or regular broadband connected directly through your phone line that links you to your ISP.

Who Are The Best Internet Service Providers In Australia?

Our ISP is Westnet and there are many others to choose from like TPG, Netspace and Internode etc. From personal experience and when listening to my customers complaints, there are two ISP’s I definitely DO NOT recommend, and they are DCSI and Bigpond. But you are welcome to read the results of this extensive broadband survey from whirlpool, ask other people about their own experiences and make your own decision.

What Is A Local Area Network?

At work, you may be part of a local area network (LAN), but you most likely still connect to the Internet using an ISP that your company has a contract with. When you connect to your ISP, you become part of their network. The ISP may then connect to a larger network and become part of their network. As you can already tell by this example, the Internet is really just a network of networks.

The term ‘domain name’ is often used when people talk about the internet … but sometimes there is confusion about what it really means. Every time you look up a website or send an email, you do it via a domain name.

A domain name is the ‘address’ of a particular website on the internet and identifies where specific data lives, just like a postal address you might use when sending letters. This domain name tells your browser where to look to access the page you want to see.

Anyone can choose and register a domain name, as long as it hasn’t been taken by someone else. You can use a domain registrar to do this or get your website designer to do it for you and an annual fee for each domain name you register will also be required. It’s best to choose a fairly short and easy to remember word that relates to what you are wanting to sell, discuss or offer to your potential visitors. If it’s for a business, using your business name will often help with search engine traffic as well.

A domain name should cost less than $20 per year to register and renew.

What Is A Sub Domain?

We use a sub domain to organize our content into separate websites. Our main domain name is lifegames.com.au. This particular website is actually a sub-domain called websites.lifegames.com.au. Also included are photos.lifegames.com.au and panoramas.lifegames.com.au.

Another great example of a site that uses subdomains to organize their content is about.com. If you visit their site, you will notice that they use different subdomains for each of the different topics they cover (e.g., “movies.about.com” and “toys.about.com”).

One point to note is, unlike domains, subdomains can be created at any time without having to register another new domain name. For any domain, you can generally create as many subdomains as you like; you do not have to go to a registrar and pay an annual fee for each of them.

What Is An IP Address?

Each COMPUTER that is connected to the Internet also has a clearly identifiable address made up of numbers, called the IP address. It is made up of four sequences of digits that are separated by three dots. They look like this: 124.150.81.122.

You can check what your own IP address is by going HERE.

A domain name also has an IP and is the word version of this address, making it simple for people to understand and remember. It is much easier to remember a domain name instead of recalling the numbers in the IP address.

What Is A Domain Name System?

To make the process more universal, the web uses a system known as the Domain Name System (DNS), which orders each section of a domain name from the broadest part (ie. the ‘au’ which represents Australia), right down to the most specific part (ie. the ‘lifegames’). This helps computers read the name in a logical order.

Yet there’s still a lot to learn about Internet Marketing and creating successful websites (I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface)…but what I can offer is this advice.

A website will ‘work’ if four very important things occur -

1. You use appropriate keywords and phrases (the most likely ones people would search for to find you).
2. You get as many appropriate websites (related to your industry or location) to link to yours as possible.
3. The website is updated with fresh quality content and technological advances.
4. You promote your website and ‘drive traffic’ towards it.

Functionality, quick loading, ease of navigation, relevant and useful content and testimonials also add to the appeal of each site.

A website is almost useless and a waste of money if these things are not present.

THE MOST POPULAR WEBSITES AREN’T PRETTY – You’ll notice that my definition of succesful websites doesn’t include having a beautiful design. In fact, the most successful websites in the world are really quite ugly. Take a look at YouTube and Google for instance. Then read this fantastic article about what makes a highly successful website.

If you already have a business, a product a service or just some good quality information to share with the world, the Internet could well be the place to expand your horizons.

Start with a well-structured website and quality content…if you can’t write your own marketing script, get a professional to do it for you…make it compelling and your site visitors will be keen to come back for more!

I wish you all the very best with your Internet Adventure,

Are you the owner of a WordPress Self Hosted Website Or Blog?
Do people sometimes tell you they can’t access your website..?
Has your high page rank disappeared or reduced significantly..?
Have you noticed lowered traffic stats..?
Are your adsense earning getting less and less..?
Have you seem strange files in your FTP..?
Are you losing money in revenue and you can’t really understand why…?
Can you occasionally see mysterious users in your dashboard users panel…?
Do some emails sent through the contact form seem to go astray…?
Are your RSS feeds working properly…?
Have you had difficulties upgrading a plugin…?
Does the automatic upgrade fail…?
Do you experience unusually long server downtime…?
Are your permalinks messed up…?

For anyone who’s experiencing problems like these (or any that have started over the last few months) and you are still running older versions of wordpress (prior to 2.8.3), you MUST read this security bulletin. (Relating to self-hosted wordpress sites only)

http://wordpress.org/development/2009/09/keep-wordpress-secure/

I manage about 30 wordpress websites. After having a few niggling problems like the network dropping out when I tried to publish a post, adsense revenues dropping, traffic stats plummeting, unusual files found in my ftp and sometimes seeing the evidence of mysterious entries in my dashboard users page, I finally realised My SITES HAD BEEN HACKED by the ‘wordpress worm’.

Not only my sites were effected though – most of my clients as well…and all were oblivious to the fact, yet several had complained about losing page rank etc

Please note – if you kept up to date with each new wordpress version as it was released, you are probably OK. But you really should be checking – and upgrading too.

If you’re concerned you may have something strange happening with your wordpress site or just simply curious, you can find out how I solved the problem when my websites got hacked…

Find Out If Your WordPress Site Has Been Hacked.

This is a useful little FREE ‘Adobe Air’ application that is easy to install. It can be customized to suit many common requirements and is especially useful to batch process images for emailing or uploading to websites and picture galleries.

>> Download The Whole Package In One Simple Step <<

How To Get Noticed On YouTube

I have uploaded numerous videos of my own on to YouTube and other video sharing sites.

There are no winning recipes for what type of videos will get you traffic. I’ve seen some really valuable and well produced videos with hardly any views and the most ridiculous ones with an enormous fan base – go figure…and you must also drive people TO your videos as well….you don’t just ‘publish and run’.

Just as writing articles, leaving posts on forums and blogs are useful tools for getting a website noticed, so is looking at other people’s videos and leaving comments for them. You can also post ‘video responses’ to get more attention.

Whatever you choose, you still have to ‘work at it’. But video making is great fun and also under utilized for marketing purposes.

When I saw this video I knew I had to share it with you.

This guy, Kevin Nalts, makes a video every day and publishes it on YouTube so he’s probably one of the best experts to be able to bring you some great advice on not only how to cheat on YouTube, but more importantly he gives you the clues as to “How To Get Noticed On YouTube“. (You’ll note that even his title with the word CHEAT in it, tends to build up your curiosity)

A few other points to note are:

• use your best keywords in the title of your video (mine were indexed within the first few weeks)
• get someone to submit your videos to StumbleUpon but make sure you only submit from each IP address once (or the rating changes to a negative).
• if you submit once to Veoh, they have a system where you can opt to submit to GoogleVideo, YouTube and Myspace all in one go.
• the thumbnail (the thumbnail sized image that people first see) is very important…YouTube automatically selects the thumbnail from the centre of your video, so make sure your image right at the halfway point, represents your most important subject. Other video sharing sites give you more choice.
• there are many video sharing sites to choose from, and you can find a fairly comprehensive list of them at Mini-Movie-Maker, but without question, YouTube gets the most traffic.
• also find some resources on how to make and edit your own videos at http://www.mini-movie-maker.com
• some of the things that reliably get attention are, controversial issues, doing something really stupid, accidents, people being humiliated or hurt (sorry, but it’s true), images that cause a shock response, anything bizarre and really different.

Watch and Learn from someone with much more experience than most…

The UGLIEST Website – The website I want to show you actually belongs to friends of mine (both wonderful people) who own a very beautiful accommodation place overlooking the picturesque harbour in Port Albert, (a delightful coastal town in South Gippsland). They know their website isn’t pretty and plan to have it rebuilt…but lets take a look at this ugly website and find out what lessons can be learned here!

This site at http://blithespiritportalbert.com.au/ is really a disaster which looks like it was built in the dark ages and would be without doubt, the ugliest website I have ever seen.

What mistakes do YOU notice first…? – Besides having an enormous amount of what is called ‘white space’ (useless areas of blank space without images or text), there is a mismatch of colours and images, the page takes forever to scroll to the bottom and the center aligned text makes it appear as if a child had created it!

Colours and Font Types – I counted at least 6 different colours and 6 different font types. The recommended number is no more than two or maybe three colours for text, and utilizing a web safe colour combination chart during the design process, enables aesthetically-ignorant people to choose a complete colour scheme that looks like it was meant to belong together.

Center Aligned Text – Please, please align your text to the left. At least do it with the main body of your website. Placing your text to the center of the column makes it difficult to read, looks messy and appears INCREDIBLY unprofessional.

Really Long Domain Names – Blithe Spirit Port Albert is really bordering on being too long…imagine having to type that into your address bar each time you wanted to visit the site! Keep your name as short as possible and include one of your most important KEYWORDS in the title if you can. Doing this will get you recognized easier and quicker by the search engines.

Photographs – Most of the picture of local scenes on the page are actually OK, but keeping in mind that this property is probably worth somewhere in the vicinity of 1 million dollars, the picture with the crooked horizon at the very bottom of the page would have been better left off entirely (see below)…yet, a few simple enhancements like straightening, cropping, colour enhancing and adding a basic drop shadow make the world of difference.

Original Picture Source: http://blithespiritportalbert.com.au/

The Importance Of Simplicity – And WHY someone would make lilac the base colour of a web page, absolutely mystifies me! Most regular photographs show a marked improvement in appearance just by placing them on a black, dark grey or white background, and most web pages read better on white.

Take a look at some of the busiest and biggest money making sites on the Internet…Google, YouTube, Hostmonster and E-Bay. There’s a reason those sites are designed the way they are – simplicity, easy on the eye and easy to navigate.

Hidden Mistakes - There are a two other really large mistakes exhibited on the Blithe Spirit Website, that only a few people would be aware of… …you may have noticed the bright blue photograph of the sailing boat. It sort of sticks out, doesn’t it?….Well…that happens to be MY photograph.

It was taken from another website without my authorization. Not only that, the words describing the ‘sailing tours’ (to the right of that picture on the web page), were WRITTEN BY ME especially FOR the ‘sailing tours’ website.

Copyright Laws – Now those things in themselves aren’t a problem. My friends own both websites. I’m OK about my picture and words being used in this situation, and if they had asked me, of course I would have given my permission anyway. It’s just that many people seem to be quite ignorant of the copyright laws relating to photographs, pictures, images and words found on the Internet.

If you do steal something from the Internet, attributing it to the original author or photographer is paramount…and if you’ve got stolen stuff sitting on your website already, don’t worry, I made the same mistake once too. Either, get the required permission or get rid of it as soon as you can.

Website Content Problems – But besides the problems relating to copyright, which, in extreme situations could cost money in law suits, one of the worst things people can do to their own website, is to copy and paste content from other websites…no matter who owns them or if they have permission!

Googles Secret Policy – Well, it’s not really a secret -that’s just another provocative heading – but, Googles Duplicate Content Policy does explain fairly clearly that Google have the right to penalize website owners for malicious breach of their Duplicate Content Policy…

“Duplicate content generally refers to substantive blocks of content within or across domains that either completely match other content or are appreciably similar……as a result, the ranking of the site may suffer, or the site might be removed entirely from the Google index, in which case it will no longer appear in search results.”

(Source: googles webmaster guidelines )

Get Educated – It’s time to grasp the lessons to be learned from other people’s mistakes. The Internet is a fast moving arena, and if you intend to have a business with an Internet presence, it’s vital that you keep up with the changes in website technology, design preferences AND educate yourself about your legal responsibilities as a website owner too.

But, Do Ugly Websites Still Serve A Purpose? – My word they do! When I did a quick google search, I found the Blithe Spirit Website to be listed high in SOME searches. The length of time a domain has been registered has a bearing on it’s ranking…and there was also this great post to consider about UGLY websites too…

…but seriously, what sort of image does it portray to your customers when they land on a web page like the Blithe Spirit one? Its it a good reflection of a property worth around 1 million dollars? Hmmmm, we all know the answer to that one – don’t we!

Is Your Website A Good Reflection Of Your Business?