Nonitage

One particular thing that all of the public should demand in this day in age is a high speed broadband connection so that every one of us can easily locate colleagues over email and even possibly MSN Messenger or maybe download contents at a high speed from around the web. Compare Broadband UK allows everybody to see how good your own internet connection is by letting customers to carry-out the entire Broadband Speed Test and if every one of us find out that your internet connection is is not rapid enough then you can effortlessly alter your broadband web connection so that it better meets precisely where everyone live. Compare Broadband UK does this for you; easily. We are living in an extraordinary place aren’t we.

At the easy Compare Broadband UK site you have the whole ability to take a Broadband speed test. The easy speed check produce reports concerning the actual web speed concerning uploads and downloads possible via your broad band. From all this every one of us will consequently be able to determine the speed of a broadband connection & once there you will easily witness if you need to switch your current internet account.

The speed test will quickly ascertain your download pace, this is the rate your present internet connection is able to download information from the entirety of the net, it is useful to have a good speed for this service as it is what you yourself will use when you import pictures, wav files and emails in addition to sizeable attachments. You then enjoy the broad band upload pace this is the rate that your connection send info back to the web, this is of principle importance concerning online games and net telephone calls. This is exactly where Compare Broadband UK comes in helpful. All that you need to do is simply just pop your info into the system and make clear what it is exactly you are trying to look for and it will easily pop up a bunch of the cheapest and most rapid broadband offers available to you. The prices might well range from 4 pounds per month to 50 pounds depending on what exactly customers are trying to look for. Compare Broadband UK uses your postcode to find out exactly what it is the quickest transfer rate targeted at your particular post code. Get some help use our Broadband Speed Test from Compare Broadband UK.

How popular is online shopping? And is there room for improvement? Let’s check out some pros and cons of automated shopping and see.

Digital carts offer convenience for people around the globe 24 hours a day. Yet an estimated 4 percent of shoppers make purchases, up from 3.5 percent in 2003, reported by DoubleClick, an online marketing company.

And approximately 30 percent of shopping carts are abandoned, according to recent surveys by BizRate.com, a shopping search engine.

The main reasons for shopping cart abandonment are*:

• High shipping prices (72%)

• Comparison shopping or browsing (61%)

• Changed mind (56%)

• Saving items for later purchase (51%)

• Total cost of items is too high (43%)

• Checkout process is too long (41%)

• Checkout requires too much personal information (35%)

• Site requires registration before purchase (34%)

• Site is unstable or unreliable (31%)

• Checkout process is confusing (27%)

To decrease shopping cart abandonment and increase sales, simple minor improvements in automation can be highly effective. Here are some tips that work best for clients and workers alike of OhioHelp.net, an Ohio-based company that specializes in helping businesses worldwide with their marketing, public relations and freelance writing services.

TOP TIPS FROM OHIOHELP.NET

1. Calculate all handling charges and fees in with your price whenever possible, so that you can offer no-cost shipping. And check for specials like Flat Rate packages with Priority Shipping.

2. Don’t have people pre-register, fill out lengthy forms, wait for email confirmation, find their password / user ID and figure out how to log in again and continue to fill out more detailed forms and click through a half-dozen pages. Ugh! People want to shop, buy and go. Period.

3. On EVERY page of your site, shopping cart, receipt and Thank You or other automated reply, list complete contact information. Include a specific person to follow up with, business phone number and postal address (no P.O. Box) and a direct email address like diana@ohiohelp.net (i.e. not info@ohiohelp.net). Then if the Internet connection fails, the site goes down or any number of other technical issues occurs, the shopper immediately has concrete information for follow up.

4. Set your product order numbers at one (1). In other words, when someone clicks a purchase button, have the cart say one (1) item purchased when they preview their cart instead of zero, making them select “1″ again.

5. Include a no-cost gift in the shopping cart, with the receipt or in the Thank You email, especially with large purchases. Let your customers know you appreciate their business. And ask for referrals!

6. Test special product and package prices with offers on a “Thank You” page or with a “Thank You” email.

7. Accept multiple payment options when possible; credit cards, faxed and telephone orders, print checks, money orders, echecks and 3rd party solutions like Paypal. Note: many businesses use American Express.

8. Choose a progressive shopping cart software solution like ProfitAuto at http://presssuccess.com/AutoPilot for a variety of services, pricing packages and options for company growth. ProfitAuto manages not only the cart but also your leads, contacts and shoppers with automated “Thank You” follow up. It also has autoresponders for pre-sale and after-sale communications, digital tracking and delivery solutions, importing / exporting of lists and autoresponder series, electronic coupons, affiliate programs and more.

NO-COST TRIAL AND INFORMATION

For a 30-day no-cost trial of ProfitAuto, sign up online at http://presssuccess.com/AutoPilot . And download ebooks with loads of information to help with your business from the “Freebies” section of the OhioHelp.net bookstore at http://www.presssuccess.com/bookstore

So tweak your checkout process. Make your clients and your company happy. And ring up more sales. To learn more top tips and receive them on a regular basis at no charge in your email, sign up at http://ohiohelp.net today or email diana@ohiohelp.net.

* From research (Fall, 2001) by Vividence Corporation, specializing in Customer Experience Management (CEM) products and services.

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You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated - send to: diana@ohiohelp.net

About The Author

Diana Barnum, president of http://movingaheadcommunications.com and CEO of http://ohiohelp.net. For more help with marketing, public relations and writing, email diana@ohiohelp.net or call: (614) 529-9459.

Which came first? The Google or the web hosting? Web hosting gives us poor people the ability to be seen and heard. It also helps the average person to wield enormous potential. Whether the person knows they have potential or not.

Businesses come and go online but the fact will always remain that the internet is a place of immense oppurtunity. For easily less than $100 a year a person can throw up a website and, with some internet savvy, see that site recieve search engine traffic and generate income. That in itself is something really great.

I’ve worked long hours in manufacturing and I’ve even put in hours working at my own physical storefront. I’ve handled clients for web design and programming and a few other services. None of it has been able to beat the feeling of having a website myself. No amount of money that I get paid through my own hard work and effort can compare to the feeling I get from coming home from town with my wife and finding out I made a couple hundred dollars while I was away.

I would have to point out that, even if you were not internet savvy enough to generate a steady income online, having a web hosting account means you have the potential to do it. Web hosting is useful for exploring hobbies, connecting with family and friends, expanding business, generating income and even building niche communites like for gaming, surfing and other.

Just having a decent web hosting account puts a person at the door of limitless potential whether they actually explore that potential or not. You can explore network marketing, ecommerce, affiliate marketing or even offering your professional services.

You can easily track down tutorials to learn a bit about SEO, web hosting and web page design. Most web hosting companies have a web site builder that allows you to build a web site without knowing anything about HTML.

All it really takes is a good idea, a bit of research, and some good web hosting.

Affordable Web Hosting for Small Business
Search Engine Placement and Optimization 101

There are a lot of different kinds of websites - and there are a
lot of people who know they want a website, but aren’t even sure
why. If you don’t already know, you need to figure out exactly
what it is that you want your website to do. What kind of thing
do you want to put on it? Who are you trying to get to visit?
Here’s a quick guide to some of the most popular website types.

The Business Card Website

For many people, having a website is something they feel the
need to do as a duty, not because they really want to do it. In
this case, it’s perfectly justified to put up a website with
nothing more than your name, your business name (if any), and
your email address. You could also include your real-world
address and your phone number, if you’re comfortable with that.
The key here is to at least put up something for someone who
happens to be looking for you with a search engine.

You have to understand, though, that these kinds of sites can be
as frustrating as they are helpful. Friends and co-workers may
be excited to find your site, only to say “oh… is that all it
does?” Customers, especially, have a tendency to get upset,
especially if they just wanted to know something about your
products or pricing. Not having a complete website makes work
for them when they have to ask you about these things, and for
you when you have to answer.

The CV/Portfolio Website

An extension of the business card format is to make your website
brief, and directed at getting people to call you if they’re
interested in you. It could just be a listing of the jobs you’ve
had, or it could be an archive of the articles you’ve written
for various publications - whatever, it’s there to get you work.
These kinds of websites can be effective, although you should
realise that you’re more likely to get some work because of a
site that people find useful than because of one that’s just
about you.

The Brochure Website

They’re often-mocked in web design, but they’re not really that
bad: brochure-style websites simply reproduce the kind of
material you would send out in a brochure to an interested
customer, complete with pictures and technical details. Instead
of actually doing any business online, you give the customer
your contact information.

In many industries, really, this is the only way to work. There
are things you just can’t do with shopping carts and credit card
processing, after all, especially when it comes to services.
These kinds of websites are especially prevalent among
businesses with a more local focus.

The E-Commerce Website

There are two situations where e-commerce works really well: if
you’re selling a service that can be provided over the web, or
if you’re selling a small product that you can handle shipping
for. In these situations, e-commerce websites are very powerful.
You can sell your product direct online, cutting out whatever
middlemen there might be.

The Content Website

Ever more popular, content websites work by providing useful
writing and then putting ads around it. That’s the whole
business model in a nutshell, but it works surprisingly well.
The more writing you can do (or get), the better it works for
you. If you want, you can even leave off the ads and put up a
small button asking people to donate to your site if they found
your information helpful - people can be nicer than you’d expect.

The Community Website

Finally, an often-ignored kind of website is one that exists to
serve a community. The community might be geographical (people
who live in the same town), or it could an interest or hobby
community (a forum for people who really like a certain genre of
TV show, for example). Community websites can be fun to
participate in, and they can make a lot of money if you can find
advertisers who are interested in the very specific audience
your site has got. If your site gets popular, you might even be
able to charge people for membership! Even if it stays free and
small, though, it’s nice to have a web community to call your
own, and you’re likely to benefit in all sorts of ways that you
wouldn’t expect

A picture is worth a thousand words.

And it still is today. With the media changing everyday photography has changed along with it and as a result is still a valuable resource for web business.

1. Photos enhance the look of a website.

2. Communicate so much more than words, they communicate emotions.

3. Photos can be customized for borders and backgrounds.

4. Photos have more impact than clip art. (They tend to give a more professional look.)

5. Stock photography is a big business and affordable stock is out there.

As a web business you’re most likely a small business and have a limited budget and that’s where stock photography can be great resource for you. You can spend as little as $10.00 or as much as $200.00 plus on one image. (Consider that if you hired a professional commercial photographer to shoot a few rolls of film to your specifications it would cost you thousands and thousands of dollars.)

Things to remember when shopping for stock photography:

1. Know what you want, start with a generic idea and get specific as you shop (Remember you probably will not find the exact image that you have in your head, be open to good photos that you find along the way.)

2. Shop around, try the larger agencies try the independents too. (Larger agencies offer more to chose from independent photographers offer more personalized service.)

3. Know what you’re going to use it for, stock photography belongs to the photographer who created it, or the agency, so know what you need it for there can and will be limitations of use.

4. Know what format you need, you only need 72 dpi for the web, be careful that you don’t pay for a higher quality when you don’t need it. (300 dpi for printing purposes)

5. Know your terms for the industry, Make sure that you know what the difference is between royalty free and rights managed, and any other terms the business may use. If something is not clear on their site contact them and ask for clarification.

So remember you can add a little more impact and emotion to your site by making use of the stock photography out there today.

About The Author

Copyright 2004 Kelly Paal

Kelly Paal is a Freelance Nature and Landscape Photographer, exhibiting nationally and internationally. Recently she started her own business Kelly Paal Photography (www.kellypaalphotography.com). She has an educational background in photography, business, and commercial art. She enjoys applying graphic design and photography principles to her web design.

The most recent paranoia involving websites is the thing called
PageRank. Most webmasters and site owners are going crazy over
it.

PageRank determines how well your site is. PageRank values may
vary depending on your site’s performance. In order to see your
site’s PageRank values, download the same from Google. Marketing
analysts and administrators want to be updated with the PageRank
so as to determine where to exert more effort in marketing the
sites.

What is involved in the PageRankmania? Usually, the Google
toolbar fetches the PageRank values from the data center with
the use of its IP address. Values come in simple text files to
the toolbar. When the Google Dance begins it displays the old
PageRank values.

Administrators and marketers are having a hard time finding
strategies to keep the PageRank high so as to give them greater
opportunity than those sites found under them. How do they keep
up with the tough competition?

Administrators and marketers alike are discovering lots of
techniques to increase their site’s PageRank. Some of these
techniques include submission of articles to various submissions
sites, subscribing to forums, blogs, blog commenting, directory
submissions, reciprocal linking, three-way linking, and offering
discounts. These techniques are already proven. Aside from these
techniques, administrators and marketers are still discovering
more.

Google search engine as well as the rest of the search engines
is actively finding the keywords in a site. Keywords have to be
placed in the right position and with the right density in order
for search engines to locate it instantly.

What though is the essence of this mania? If there are hundreds
of sites with the same keywords and your site landed on the
first page of the search engine, imagine the advantage, imagine
the opportunity. Now, imagine no more for it can be your reality.

Let’s face it, viewers and searchers are lazy enough to browse
over all the sites in that resulted from their queries.
Obviously, they will select the ones on the first page
especially those situated on a higher ranking.

If you are one of those situated in higher rank chances are you
will get most of the viewers. This will be greatly advantageous
on your site. Greater viewers mean greater chance of marketing
your goods or services.

Work the PageRankmania to your advantage. It surely pays off!