We all know that colors play an important role for making a website or other marketing content look more attractive, highlighting something for attention and generally making it more appealing to read.  While we’ve all seen good examples of how color enhances websites or marketing materials, it’s not something that you really notice to stop you in your tracks.  Good use of color just makes the experience better without being intrusive.

On the other hand, we’ve all seen bad use of color on websites and other materials that do stop us in our tracks.  Bad use of color with too many different or conflicting colors for elements such as text, lines, borders, highlights, callouts, etc. is an affront to the visual senses – the website looks too busy and you don’t know where to look for the information you want.  While the designer may have thought it would be eye-catching, it’s more a case of being eye-wrenching and tiring on the eyes.

Color is an important and necessary element of good website design.  But how many colors do you really need?  The risk of using too many colors on a website is much greater than the risk of too few. A good basic rule for selecting colors is to choose one primary color that sets the color theme for the website, a highlight color for emphasis and a text color.  A secondary color to complement the primary color can add a good visual effect if used correctly.

Choosing the right color combinations is a well defined science, not a random selection of someone’s favorite colors.  There are lots of color theory and selection resources available on the Internet.  These are common approaches for choosing a good color scheme:

 
Monochromatic – choose a single color with variations in lightness and saturation. A clean, easy to view approach that sets a subtle color theme for a website.
 

 

 
Analogous – choose a primary color plus emphasis and secondary colors adjacent on either side of the primary color.  The colors are harmonious and look richer than monochromatic.
 

 

 
Complementary – choose two colors opposite each other on the color wheel.  This scheme offers the highest contrast and works well for a primary and highlight color approach.
 

 

 
Triadic – choose 3 colors equally spaced on the color wheel.  This provides a balanced approach with harmonious contrast using 3 colors.
 

 
Color also portrays a perceived meaning such as blue for dependable, red for powerful, gold for expensive, yellow for happy, etc.  These perceived meanings have cultural differences too.  Consider these perceived general and cultural meanings when selecting colors to ensure that the colors selected support the message and meaning you want to communicate.

If you already have a corporate or logo color, consider using that as a starting point for selecting your approach and color scheme.

Are your website and marketing material colors off-putting or welcoming for visitors and readers?
Copyright © 2010 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

What does it take to update the content on your website?  Do you have to go through a rigmarole that takes too long and involves technical staff to transform your content into HTML or other code before someone updates the website?  Do you think this is a ridiculous process and that you should be able to directly update your website content without technical assistance?  Absolutely, website content can and should be directly updated by the content owners / providers such as marketers, product managers, business operators, public relations, etc.

Websites used to be developed as static HTML or other code pages where the content was intermingled with the structure, formatting, navigation and other technical aspects.  Any updates to the content would require technical expertise to make the changes and publish the updated website.  Most of us experienced the frustrations, delays and problems with this process.  But that’s history, there is a better way.

Modern websites should be built with a Content Management System (CMS) or more specifically a Web Content Management System (Web CMS).  A Web CMS provides the means to build a dynamic website by separating the content from the other components of a website.  All the website information is stored in a database and the CMS provides content creation, editing, control and website maintenance via a user-oriented web interface.

A Web CMS typically provides the following capabilities:

• A predefined database to store all definitions, content and metadata.
• User management for access and security control for who may create, edit, update, change various areas of the website.
• A presentation layer usually based on templates that define the structure, layout and formatting of the website.
• A navigation layer that defines the menus and navigation of the website.
• Content creation, editing and control via a WYSIWYG interface much like using a regular word processing system.
• Extensions and plug-ins to support capabilities such as RSS Feeds, Polls, Multiple Languages, Calendars, Media, Advertising, eCommerce, etc.
• Most Web CMS provide the necessary capabilities for supporting Search Engine Optimization and Marketing requirements.

And the best part about using Web CMS is that you can get a highly functional, open source system such as Joomla, WordPress, modx, CMS Made Simple and others for free.  This website uses WordPress as its Web CMS – everything on this website is contained and managed in WordPress.

The learning curve to implement an open source Web CMS-based system is quite low with many tutorials and guides available at no or low cost.

How to use this information to benefit your business
If you still have a static website that you can’t dynamically update when and where you want, it’s time to consider moving to a Web CMS for your website:

• Designated end-user content owners / providers can create, edit, control and update the website content when needed without technical assistance or delay.  It’s as simple as the equivalent of a word processing application.
• Multiple people can manage different designated areas of the website.
• The website structure, layout and formatting can be easily updated or changed without impacting the existing content.
• Web CMS provides secure user access control so only authorized persons can update designated areas.
• A Web CMS with available extensions and plug-ins provides expanded capabilities for your website that were previously either unavailable or too costly to consider.
• With Web CMS you can make your website work for your business in the manner you want.  You can keep your website and content fresh and relevant.

Copyright © 2010 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

Your business website on the Internet is the digital equivalent of a physical store.  The impression people get about a business when they walk into a physical store applies equally when people visit your website.  We all like stores that make you feel welcome with a customer friendly layout, clean, inviting, organized, and easy to find what you want.  The same applies to your website – and even more so, because there’s no assistant or manager your website visitors can speak to if they need help.

A business website is the single most important online marketing asset for a company.
Everything you do for your business on the Internet always comes back to your website.  If you have a physical store, your website is an integral part of your business.  Websites have evolved into sophisticated marketing machines that can generate or influence a significant portion of a company’s revenue.

Is your website inviting or annoying for your visitors?
Have you ever tried doing business with yourself online?  Seriously, put yourself in a typical website visitor’s shoes and try to do what you want them to do when they visit your website – find some information, buy something, contact you, etc.  Invite other people not connected with your business to review your website and provide feedback.  Get feedback from customers.  You’ll most likely find some room for improvement.

Does your website attract and captivate visitors?
When someone lands on your homepage or other landing pages for your website, it should be blatantly clear what products/services your business offers and what visitors should do to proceed with taking the next step.  Check your bounce rate of how many people leave your website after viewing just one page.  If the bounce rate percentage is high, you are either attracting the wrong visitors or your website isn’t capturing their attention.

Or does it annoy visitors and send them to your competition?
We’ve all experienced it – you find a website that probably has what you’re looking for.  But it’s difficult to find what you want because the website may have a strange layout, or it uses design elements that are either distracting or just plain irritating.  The website is so difficult or annoying to use and find what you want, that you click away and look for another source.  Remember that people on the Internet visit many websites – if your website design is very different from what they’re used to using and seeing, they’ll go elsewhere.

Do your Internet marketing activities die when prospects or buyers visit your website?
The first major objective of Internet marketing is to attract the right type of visitors to your website using Search Engine Marketing, local search, advertising and other methods.  Once visitors arrive at your website, the next major objective of Internet marketing is to get them to take whatever action you want from your visitors.  This is referred to as conversion – indicating that a visitor has successfully completed an objective of the website or business.  Low conversion rates indicate that most of the Internet marketing activity dies when target people visit a website – why is this happening?

The power of Internet Marketing is available to all businesses, but there are many common website blunders that can damage your Internet presence by annoying your visitors and driving them away.

Get more specific details about these website problems and how to avoid and fix them on your website in our free eBook – 25 Common Website Blunders that Damage Your Internet Presence – no registration required to download, just click the link and the PDF eBook will open in a new browser window.

Check out this eBook today – hopefully you don’t have any of these problems on your business website, but if you do, it’s time to fix it before you drive more potential buyers away and undermine your Internet marketing initiatives.
Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

Google recently announced the redesign of their Small Business Network website to provide additional capabilities in a comprehensive Small Business Toolkit. Although the individual components of the Small Business Toolkit were previously available from Google as part of other services, the packaging and small business orientation makes this a useful resource for businesses.

The following capabilities are included in the Google Small Business Toolkit covered in this announcement:

• Google’s Local Business Center – offers free Internet business listings for local search and tools to track activity. See the Can buyers easily find your local business online? article for more information on local listing and search services from Google and others.
• Google Apps – this is a combination of the free online Google Docs which provides word processing, spreadsheet, presentations and forms functionality, with a collection of templates for business documents such as invoices, business plans, project plans, budgeting, legal forms, etc.
• Google Maps – for creating custom maps featuring your business which can be included in the public Google Maps search service to help people find your business.
• Google Maps with Real-time Traffic – to plot more efficient delivery routes for your business.
• Adwords – complete details about advertising your business on the Internet using Google’s Adwords search advertising service.
• Google Analytics – for website traffic and data analysis that provides insights into website traffic patterns and marketing effectiveness.
• Google Website Optimizer – is a tool for testing different variations of a website’s content to find out which combination results in the highest number of conversions.
• Small Business Network – for receiving updates, taking action and discussing public policy issues that affect your business.

The Small Business Toolkit provides complete documentation, online help and instructional videos for using the various applications.

How to use this information to benefit your business

• Except for Adwords, these are all free applications and services to support small businesses.
• The Analytics and Website Optimizer tools are essential for improving your website and Internet marketing effectiveness.
• The video tutorials and detailed a documentation are a good resource for just learning more about some of these topics.
• These are powerful tools and within easy reach for use by small businesses.
• A more extensive collection of tools and services are available from Google Business Solutions.

Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

Please use this article post to provide comments, feedback or discuss the “25 Common Website Blunders that Damage Your Internet Presence” eBook. This eBook is a free download – click here to get your copy – PDF will open in new window.
Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

Websites used to be the electronic equivalent of a company brochure – a digital business identity on the Internet. The information content on websites used to be about the company, who they are and what they did. It was mostly about just having website. The information was relatively static with a couple of updates a year. Fast forward to today, a website is arguably the single most important marketing asset for a company. Websites have evolved into sophisticated marketing machines that can generate or influence a significant proportion of a company’s revenue. Where does your company’s website fall in this range of possibilities? Unfortunately, there are still many company websites out there that are little more than an electronic brochure.

Think about how we buy stuff today – take a car for example – we don’t first go to the various dealer showrooms or manufacturer’s websites. We first find information, guidance and recommendations from informational and/or authoritative sources on the Internet. Next we’ll do more research to correlate these findings with our specific needs, circumstances and preferences. Then we’ll select the car we want and some possible alternatives. Now we’ll find a dealer or seller who has what we want at a price we’re willing to pay and contact them. We do everything on the Internet until we’re ready to physically take a test drive and buy the car.

The above example is the common scenario today for the vast majority of buyers in every industry and marketplace, and increasingly people are making the purchase online on the website. Consider the role your website needs to play in this process for your buyers:

• Does it provide educational and informational content that buyers are looking for?
• Does it have authoritative materials and/or other capabilities such as social media to influence decisions?
• Does it have customer feedback and testimonials to support your credibility?
• Can buyers actually purchase directly from your website?
• And most importantly, once a buyer makes a decision, will they find your website to select your company as the source for their purchase?

The last point is the primary objective of website marketing. Regardless of whether your business is bricks-and-mortar or online or both, the vast majority of buyers find vendors/suppliers/stores for their purchases on the Internet. Website marketing is about ensuring that potential buyers find your website and consider buying from you.

How can I use Website Marketing to market my business?
The investment in your website, regardless of how terrific it looks, is a complete waste unless people find it, spend some time and buy something from you whether online or in your physical store. Your website can and should be a powerful marketing vehicle to engage with customers and buyers. The importance of websites in buying decisions continues to grow:

• The Internet is an increasingly popular and important source for information, research and insights for making purchases.
• Use of traditional information sources such as trade shows, events, salespeople, brochures, etc. continues to decline.
• Buyers in every industry and market are searching for information and making buying decisions online.
• If you don’t provide the information and resources buyers are looking for, someone else will.
• Buyers will find someone to buy from – will they find you?

So, how does your website rate as a marketing machine? Do a simple test, put yourself in a typical buyer’s situation for your products/services/solutions and see whether your website shows up on the radar. Better yet, watch someone who is a potential buyer but doesn’t know your business, do it. This little exercise could be enlightening and put you on the path to getting more customers and sales for your business with website marketing.
View more information about Website Marketing.
Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

If you don’t currently have an online presence, the first thing you need to do is get an appropriate domain name for your website. Regardless of when you plan to establish an online presence, you need to secure your domain name as soon as possible. A domain name is the unique name that identifies individual web sites on the Internet. A domain name is composed of 67 characters from the English alphabet and numbers 0-9. It can contain one or more hyphens but cannot begin or end with a hyphen.

A domain consists of 3 parts separated by periods
sub-domain.domain-name.top-level-domain
for example: www.yourbusinessname.com or blog.yourbusinessname.com

You register a 2-part domain name – yourbusinessname.com – you are then free to add as many sub-domains as you wish via your web hosting service. Some try to charge you for this – look for web hosting services that don’t charge extra for sub-domains.  See the article Choosing a Domain Name for guidance on choosing a good domain name for your business.

Once you have chosen the domain name you want, visit a Domain Registration service to start the process of registering your domain name. There are thousands of Domain Registration service companies on the Internet – just do a search in your favorite search engine. GoDaddy claim to be the biggest in world – they offer comprehensive domain registration services and resale auctions at competitive prices. Most web hosting providers offer domain registration services and some bundle the domain name registration fee into their hosting fee – 1and1.com offers good domain registration services at competitive prices.

The first step of the registration service will check whether the name you want is available. There are over 110 million active registered domain names and over 100,000 new registrations every day. You’ll need some alternatives in case the name you want isn’t available. You can find out who owns a domain name at WhoIs if you want to try buying a name from the owner. When you register your domain, be sure to do these 3 things to keep your domain secure and yours:

1. Lock the domain – this will prevent unauthorized transfers – the lock option should be provided during the registration process.
2. Select private registration – most domain registration services let you register your domain as private so that your personal contact information does not show up in the WhoIs database for abuse by miscreants.
3. Always select auto-renewal – domain registrations are for 1 year. If you don’t renew in time, you will lose your domain. By providing your credit card information and selecting auto-renew the domain registration service will automatically renew it for you.

Disclosure: this website is an affiliate of some of the companies mentioned in this article and may be paid commissions for sales referred by this website.
Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

Your domain name on the Internet is the equivalent of your business name and street address in the physical world. It’s how your business is found by others. Choosing the right domain name for your business is one of the most important decisions you make to establish your online presence. However, there are over 110 million active registered domain names and over 100,000 new registrations every day. You may not be able to get the name you want, so you probably need to be creative and explore alternatives. You can use any domain registration service such as GoDaddy or 1and1 to check whether a name is available.

A domain consists of 3 parts separated by periods:
sub-domain.domain-name.top-level-domain
for example: www.yourbusinessname.com or blog.yourbusinessname.com
The first decision you need to make is what Top Level Domain (TLD) you want – .com is the most common universal business TLD. If you plan to do business in a specific country or language you should consider country specific TLDs such as .ca (Canada), .uk (United Kingdom), .au (Australia), .de (Germany), etc. The .org TLD was originally intended for non-profits and .net was originally intended for network providers, but anyone can register domains with these TLDs.

There are endless debates about what constitutes a good domain name and how to go about choosing the right domain name for your business. Here are some guidelines to follow for choosing a good domain name:

• Use your company or brand name if it is available. If not, try variations or add a qualifier that describes your business – e.g. if smiths.com isn’t available, try smithsoptical.com or smiths-optical.com, etc.
• Your domain name needs to be your website name and vice versa. Don’t have a domain name of bettyjohnson.com for your business website titled ‘Betty’s Baby Clothes’.
• Most generic names like clothing.com or furniture.com are taken, so you’ll probably need some combination name or invent your own to brand your online business.
• Make it easy to remember.
• Avoid names and spelling that are easy to confuse or misspell.
• Shorter is better, but avoid being cryptic.
• Be descriptive, but avoid really long names like bettysforthebestbabyclothes.com
• Be careful using hyphens – people tend to forget to type in the hyphen and may not find your website or land on your competitor’s website.
• Be careful how syllables of concatenated words can be misread when strung together – e.g. for a business name of Experts Exchange it’s better to use experts-exchange.com than expertsexchange.com.

Once you have a domain name you like and it’s available, consider registering additional TLDs and name variants to stop an unscrupulous operator from taking traffic from you with adjacent names. But don’t go overboard, just a few obvious variants and TLDs if appropriate – e.g. for marketance.com, I also registered marketince.com and marketence.com and have those domains redirected to the marketance.com website.

See the Domain Registration article for details on how to register your domain name.
Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

If you plan to sell products/services/solutions online, you will need an online payment processing service for customers to pay for their purchases online. You need a payment service that is specifically designed to support online eCommerce. It should be easy to use for your customers, providing a safe and secure means for them to feel comfortable buying from you online with their credit card. It should also be easy for you to implement and manage, with reasonable processing fees.

Your online payment processing system must integrate with your eCommerce shopping cart to provide your customers with a seamless check-out experience. It should accept all major credit cards in all countries you plan to sell your products/services/solutions from your online store. PayPal is the dominant Online Payment Service which is trusted and accepted by online shoppers worldwide to pay for online purchases. This broad acceptance, choice of payment solutions, ease of use for customers and merchants, comprehensive functionality and trusted services make it the top choice for an online payment system for online businesses worldwide.

If you already have a Merchant Account for accepting credit cards in your physical business, you could get an Internet Merchant Account from your bank or merchant account provider. You will need a Payment Gateway such as Payflow from PayPal to link your online shopping cart with your Internet Merchant Account.
Disclosure: this website is an affiliate of some of the companies mentioned in this article and may be paid commissions for sales referred by this website.
Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com

There are thousands of web hosting companies offering similar services at competitive prices. I use 1and1.com. for several websites including this one, and have built informational and eCommerce websites for customers using 1and1 services. They offer a full range of web hosting services and capabilities with good phone support from a real live person 24×7. Check out ‘MyBusiness Site’ to easily create your own professional business website, ‘eShop’ for a full function eCommerce website, ‘Web Hosting’ for flexible website hosting services, and low cost Domain registration services at 1and1.com. To check out other web hosting service providers that may suit your needs, just enter ‘web hosting comparison’ in your favorite search engine. But be wary of some of the comparison and recommendation sites – they are advertising fronts for resellers who show their product as the best.
Disclosure: this website is an affiliate of some of the companies mentioned in this article and may be paid commissions for sales referred by this website.
Copyright © 2009 Ingistics LLC and Marketance™ www.marketance.com