Free Webspace - Creating Your Own

Free web space sounds like a good thing if you haven't found a place to host your website and don't have the budget for paid hosting. With nothing to pay for and no credit card information to enter, going for a free web hosting provider seems like the next step to take after you know how to make a website. But if your website has high ambitions when it comes to creating content and generating traffic, you should choose a reputable hosting provider because changing hosting providers can be a hassle even if you are going to transfer from a free hosting provider to another free service. Changing a hosting provider usually means that your site address must change unless you already purchased a domain. Still lots of other things need to be done such as transferring the files from the old site to the new. You can avoid this by looking for the following things before signing up for a free web space account.

Social Networking Profile

Facebook and Twitter are two of the most popular social networking sites simply because many reputable businesses including Google and Microsoft have official pages set up in these social networking profiles. Any free web hosting provider that is serious in connecting with clients will exert some effort in making an official social networking profile. These profiles serve as convenient ways for clients to get support or check for new developments.

User Base

If the free web hosting provider is really offering good services, there should be a number of other webmasters that currently have websites hosted by the provider. All you have to do is find these websites by using the domain name of the hosting provider as a keyword when searching using a search engine. Some websites place a link back to their provider simply because they want to spread the word.

Upgrade Path

A free provider is an excellent start if you don't expect a huge amount of visitors right away. But as you put content into your website and market it, more people might be checking out your site and all your visitors can suffer as a result because sites hosted in free servers are generally slow because the server is shared with other websites. Before you register in the hosting provider, look at the paid hosting plans that are available and find out their benefits. This way, you can easily upgrade your free plan to a paid plan without the need for transferring or reconfiguring your site.

Of course, the most obvious thing that you have to check is whether or not the free host is really capable of hosting your site. Be sure to check the features of the free plan as well as the terms of agreement so you know that you are not wasting time in registering and uploading your site.

How to Earn and Maintain Website Client Trust

Keeping a steady influx of new visitors coming to a website is always important, which is why there is so much attention paid to optimization and page rank; however, keeping existing visitors coming back is equally important. When viewers come back time and time again, the chance of conversion is certainly increased as is the value of repeat visitors to increase optimization efforts. It is such a positive message that searchers have come to trust a specific website as a source for whatever was needed.

Gaining Trust

The best way to gain and maintain happy, trusting customers is to provide a feeling of caring. An attractive, easy-to-use website that presents all information needed to make purchasing decisions and then standing behind the purchase with any needed assistance is the best way to build trust. In essence, trust involves just being an honest businessperson who lets existing and potential customers see the effects of that trust at work.

Establishing a relationship with website users by replying to emails, comments and any other communication is a great way to make customers know that a company is trustworthy, that there are actual people behind the monitor that can be reached if necessary. Think about trust from the customer's viewpoint, compare it to how a business must trust a supplier or other company to do the same thing.

Keeping That Trust

It must also be acknowledged that after gaining a customer's confidence, it can take very little to lose it. To maintain a good relationship with repeat customers requires continuing to provide good service and recognition. Whether online or offline, it will be noticed if service excels only before the sale and not after it, sending a negative message that customers are only important up to making a purchase. This should be avoided; it is vital to be there for customers during the purchasing process, afterwords, and anytime.

Replying to comments, social page posts and emails promptly are essential to maintain good relations with anyone interested in what a company has to offer. Yes, it can be time-consuming; however, it is a fact of doing good business on the internet. Designating necessary resources within a company to handle daily comments and emails may be necessary if there are enough to keep someone busy all day. It may be time to create a customer service position to better maintain website requests in order to promote and maintain customer trust.

Benefits of Trust

The main importance behind website trust and the credibility it creates with customers is that trusting customers tell others; traffic increases through social shares and word of mouth and the process positively continues if a similar fashion. Conversely, when a user has any problem such as a difficult time using the website or information requests ignored, negative words fly even faster and do even more damage. A customer who fails to get replies to questions sent through the website - or even worse, ends up having some kind of problem that is not resolved satisfactorily - is most assuredly not going to buy again and most likely relays such bad experiences to other potential customers. The way to avoid all of this is to keep websites properly functioning, provide easy means for customer contact, and be diligent in responding and keeping communication open.

Most of this information is just basic good business sense, with a few specifics that apply to internet-based companies. The moral of the story is the value of being sure that customers and clients have the same experience online as any good, honest company would provide in a store in order to get and maintain people's confidence. Trust goes a long way, especially when it is being asked for essentially sight-unseen; standing up to the challenge of being trustworthy in all ways is the only way to make and keep happy customers!

Web Design Services - Choosing The Best One Available

Seeking help to work on your website nowadays isn't very difficult. All it takes is a simple visit to your favorite search engine and type away. But tutorials and templates won't be the only things that will appear in the list of search results. You can expect a number of web design services to appear as well and many people that don't know how to make a website oftentimes consult a web design service. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to as well. If you are not in a hurry in getting your website up and running, you can explore some of the available options that can lead you to making a full website faster, cheaper or possibly even for free.

The first option is to look for software related to graphics design. If you have a good website layout or template in mind and you need a tool to bring the idea forward, you can use your favorite sketching tool or graphics design app. There are plenty of free tools that you can try that help you design the framework of your site. Simple sketches like this can actually save you money even if you do not know how to code a website. When you need to hire a freelancer or professional web design service, you can simply show your sketches and render so they can immediately go to work on your site. The work will be completed faster and you shouldn't be charged for the development of the idea since you came up with the idea.

If you have time to learn how to code, there are plenty of online resources available that can teach you all sorts of useful concepts regarding web development such as the use of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Even some basic familiarization with these languages can lead you to making a basic website that can bring your design to life. There are also a number of free templates that you can download and modify to your liking so you can design faster. Coding a website using Windows Notepad isn't so much fun for a lot of people which is why these people switch to free text editors that are more optimized for web design. These free tools highlight codes and syntaxes to make it easier to troubleshoot the code for errors.

Before you consult any web design services, try to do as much as you can using the free resources and software. If you have enough patience and perseverance, you may be able to design the whole website yourself. Knowing how to design the layout also means big savings because you will only need to hire a professional graphics designer if you need your site to have eye-catching banners and other design elements. There is no need to spend big on a web developer since you already have a layout that you can work with.

Why You Must Design a Website For Those Who Use It

A main goal for any website to be considered successful is to be of value to users. Getting viewers to a particular online location is of course important; however, once an audience has been attracted, it must be able to understand and navigate correctly in order to come away with the intended message. So when creating any kind of website, designers and developers must understand the targeted audience and the different ways this audience will access and use the website. The best design will fail in performance if it is not accessible and usable to all the different visitors who will frequent it.

Accessibility

One of the important points that sometimes gets forgotten when building websites is the necessity to balance cutting edge and innovative design with the ability to use it on many different types of devices. It can be detrimental if the targeted audience is the general public - not techies, computer experts and other people likely to have the newest devices and gadgets - and the website has been designed for that more technical-savvy group of visitors. When someone, somewhere tries to access a web page without the benefit of the latest and greatest technology - an older computer or a mobile device other than an iPhone or have a disability that makes useability difficult at best - it is important that it be easily accessible to all potential users. This means accommodating for different screen resolutions and sizes, different portable devices, devices that may be slow to load and human difficulty as well. While it is impossible to design for every accessing possibility, a business should carefully consider the targeted audience and design with that group in mind.

Ease of Use

As a further consideration of the above point, if the likelihood is that the main audience will primarily be average internet users who may not be so savvy with gadgets, creative menus and other, more complex design elements, it would be better to do without those cutting-edge extras. It does add a certain creative excitement to the website - but only when viewed on the appropriate systems and navigated by those who understand how to interpret and interact with that creativity. For average viewers, all that effort just creates a headache in website navigation and increases the chance of becoming frustrated and leave. Additionally, keeping consistent with regard to page elements throughout the site will keep confusion to a minimum and make the user experience a friendlier one. Make every website a comfortable, convenient experience for most visitors.

Good Content

Beyond the usability factor, being an expert with a topic and providing relevant, trustworthy information is very important as well. Whatever the message, whatever the product or topic, providing accurate content that is informative, correctly composed, and answers viewer questions is the best way to provide a good service and be remembered. Users that visit a website and have to fight with accessibility only to not find the answers to questions will most likely not visit again. Make sure all content is well presented, easy to read and spatially well-balanced on each page. Use images correctly, accentuating the page but not so much as to impede down-load time or the ability to read through content.

By paying attention to these details and designing for the primary user rather than being dazzled by the available techno-savvy gadgets that will only be employed or enjoyed by a small percentage of visitors, any website can be more effective in getting its message across to the greatest majority of visitors. A great way to determine the user-friendliness of any website is to expose it to different groups and see if any problems with useability are noticed. Catering to the right group of visitors is imperative, making sure the website can be utilized by that group and correcting any problems preventing ease of use, will go a long way for increasing website effectiveness. Oh yes, it is vital to design a website for those who will buy that product or service!

Website Solutions - Some Inexpensive Ideas

Creating a website feels like making a program, encoding a document and designing a graphic. If you have the necessary software and coding knowledge it may take a few hours to a single day to make a fully functional website. But if the website is very complicated and consists of a lot of pages, it can take more than a month even if numerous people decide to work on it. While so many factors need to be taken into consideration regarding how long the development and design takes, website solutions have one thing in common and that is to accelerate the design and development even if you do not know how to make a website. But each solution has its own advantages and limitations.

If you are after a quick and simple solution, your best bet would be to create your site at one of those online site builders. These online services often offer free registration for making a site and having it hosted there. The moment you register, you will go through a series of steps that will take you through the design and template of the site as well as the contents. Internet marketers often use free site builders as website solutions if all they need is a capture page for promoting their product or online opportunity.

If your website needs to have a unique theme and consists of several pages, you can present your site structure to a professional freelancer. Freelancers are reliable and cost-effective solutions to making a good website as long as the freelancer has a portfolio to back up his or her skills. It is important to see the person's portfolio so you can get a sense of the person's style and flexibility when it comes to website design. Before you make any downpayment to a freelancer, understand exactly what you will be getting and when the project will be finished.

If you have a need a bigger and more interactive website, you should seek a web design company because companies consist of web designers as well as web developers. Designers handle the overall look and layout of the site while developers code in the features and other dynamic elements. Once the site development is finished, you may even be offered marketing services although you should make sure that the extra service fits in your budget.

Before you move on to another solution, be sure to try various services. For instance, the first website builder that you may encounter may not be so feature-rich but if you look a bit harder, there might be other free solutions that have better templates or other features. Do some research in forums and blogs and you might find links to some of the more obscure but impressive solutions.

10 Ways to Use or Not Use Images on Your Site

We have all heard the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words. In some cases that could very well be true. Graphics and images can bring your site to life, grabbing your visitors' attention and achieving the desired conversion results. Images can add drama, excitement, truth and more to your site to make time spent on your site an experience to remember.

Studies show that one well-placed image can raise your conversion rate by as much as 25%! But despite all the amazing results images can achieve, if used incorrectly, they can also have the reverse effect.

Look over the ten tips below to see what you can do and what you shouldn't do to change the overall effect of the graphics and images on your site.

1. Use Images to Bring out Emotion - People are ruled by their emotions. Using pictures to help bring out these emotions can be very successful. Place images on your site that will bring out the positive of what you have to offer. If you sell home decor, don't just show pictures of the products. Show someone happily and proudly showing off her home with your decor to her friends. Getting your prospects to feel good is a major part of making the sale!

2. Placement is Key - People will scan your webpage in a very specific way. Our eyes tend to follow a clear pattern. Placing images in key spots in this pattern will often get more results. To start with, you will want a professional quality banner placed at the top of your page. This will draw your visitors' into your site for further scrutiny. Amidst your body copy, place images where they will enhance the information you are offering. Do not place your images randomly all over your site. This could easily distract and confuse your readers.

3. Use Quality, Professional Images - Be sure your images are not blurry or hard to see. Don't use flashy, loud or obnoxious images. You want the images to be simple and color compatible to your site. You want the images to bring out your content, not distract from it.

4. Do Not Use Clipart - Although there is a lot of free clipart available, it is not always a good choice. Clipart is very childish looking and cartoonish. Of course, there are sites that clipart would work well for, so by all means then use it. But if you need something to send a more powerful message, clipart is not the answer.

5. Slow Loading Pages - One of the most annoying things we can experience is a webpage that takes too long to load. People will more than likely not wait any longer than 5 - 10 seconds for a webpage to load. With this in mind, you want to make sure you do not use too many images or slow-loading images that will cause your readers to leave. This is one case where less is more!

6. Alternative Text or Tags - Alternative text or tags are also known as alt tags or alt text. This is done by adding text into the HTML code of the image. You want to do this because the search engine spiders cannot read images so you need to add keywords and descriptive text to achieve SEO from the image. For example: If you sell jewelry and post an image of a diamond ring on your site, the search engine spiders will not recognize the image as a diamond ring. So, you just need to add a bit of alt text like so alt="diamond ring" to your HTML code for the image. This will enable the spiders to read the image thus increasing your SEO.

7. Branding - Branding is when your company is immediately recognized by just an image or phrase. This is important because it gets people to connect with you and your company and it builds your reputation. For example: When you see a little white apple with a bite taken out of it, what company comes to mind? Simple graphics and images can do a lot for your business. Many companies will also use images to create a mascot to brand their business. Mascots can bring personality and life to your business while making it more memorable. We all know what company comes to mind when we see a little green gecko or a dancing peanut. This can happen for your business and reputation as well.

8. Website Related - One thing you want to make sure you do not do is throw up a bunch of pictures because they are pretty and look good. You don't want to use images as decorations. The images you use must be related to your site and the content you provide. Don't use images as you would knick knacks in your house - they will just clutter up your site.

9. Rotating Images - Images that showcase products by rotating 360 degrees has been shown to increase conversion rates substantially.

10. Be Creative - In this day and age the possibilities are endless so dig down deep into your creativity and come up with something so amazing it will take your business to new heights!

Images are one of those things that can do wonders for your business but they can also hurt your business as well. So, learn everything you can about how to use graphics and images to build your business. Test different images to see which ones increase your conversions and which ones do not. The extra work will definitely be worth it!

Web Page Designs - Choose The Best Layout

It takes a lot of hard work to attract lots of traffic to your website. But if you plan on launching a solid marketing campaign either on your own or with the help of an online agency, you should take a good look at your website design first or at least think about your plans regarding your web design if you haven't developed your site yet. Think about hundreds or thousands of people heading to your site as a result of your marketing efforts but end up being disappointed with the bland design. A unique web page design creates that wow factor but you might feel hopeless in coming up with such a design even if you know a thing or two on how to make a website. Good design takes a lot of thought and more importantly, plenty of inspiration.

The good news is that finding a source of inspiration isn't very difficult because there are plenty of impressive-looking websites on the Internet. A good start would be to look for a reputable web design service and check the portfolio. You should be able to access various links pointing to a number of sites that the company designed. Some web design companies may already have a fancy design for their homepage to convince potential clients in hiring the service.

Some blog sites also like to share links to interesting website designs so try to look for these blogs and subscribe to them and you might encounter a design style that can fit your website content. If you are lucky, you might find a template or Adobe Flash template that you can use as a starting point for implementing the cool design to your site.

Remember that a good and unique web page design isn't just about the visuals. Some of the nicely designed sites are backed up with some complex codes and scripts that drive the animations, transitions and other neat elements. This means that you can further improve the design of your website just by looking for these scripts. Try adding various scripts to your site and the overall site experience can be unique even if you decide to use a template that doesn't stand out. Remember, eye-catching webpage designs do not always have to be highly artistic. Some designs can be very minimal but highly functional.

It is totally okay to make a website out of inspiration of another website as long as you do not blatantly copy the whole design. It is even better if you look for multiple websites and bookmark each of them so you can take the greatest elements of these sites to create something far more unique. Just make sure that your planned design fits your site's theme well and you should be fine.