Monday, July 20, 2009

Tips For Website Setup For a Small Business

Do you want to develop a website for small business? Well, this could be challenging as the small businesses generally have limited resources, time and capital. Thus, the website of such small business must be developed in a much more effective manner so that it can help the business earn revenue.

The site must be developed in an inexpensive manner at the same time the quality musty be good and maintenance must be easy too. As highly automated sites usually include higher costs of development, it is better not to implement such sites.

Effectiveness must be the sole objective of developing websites for a small business. It is generally not possible for small businesses to make heavy investments on websites and hence the factor of return on investment must be kept in mind while developing such sites.

The main focus of developing websites for a small business must be converting the visitors into customers, and for that, proper features must be implemented. Most small business owners don't have the funds for competing with superior businesses on search engine optimization. Thus, their websites must be feature-rich and at the same time economical. It should be able to solve the purpose of the visitors so that they become customers.

It is advisable to the small business websites owners that they avoid the sections in the website such as "about us" and expend their limited resource and money on developing excellent features that possess superior chance of gaining a better return on investment. These small companies can also do marketing and web site promotion on their own by providing training and information.

It is important to make proper research and hire a genuine website development company. The development company must provide quality work at a reasonable price and should also ensure timely delivery. Transparency must be maintained between the small business owner and the web site developer so that they interact whenever required. When the project is over, the developer generally shifts to another project. It is the responsibility of the business owner to ensure that even after the project gets over, the developer is available to implement necessary changes and provide the much needed back-up.

In conclusion there are a few things to consider when setting up your website. You may consider an outsourcing company or learn on your own how to set up your new website.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Web 2.0 Helps Non-Profits to Earn Revenue

Non-profit organizations could make money with Web 2.0. Non-profits could make use of some good Web 2.0 and blogging resources that could help them in this regard. They could promote their online products or spread their message through Audio blogs, streaming videos and software that allows you to submit your site to web directories, social bookmarking software, etc. What kind of products do non-profits promote?

Promotional products - You could sell promotional products such as mugs, t-shirts, bumper stickers, posters, etc. on your site. You could place your organization's name or logo. You might even print a nice message that catches your visitor's attention. Isn't this a nice way to get your message out and earn money? If you do not want to take a lot of risk you could take the assistance of print-to-order service such as Café Press or Goodstorm. These services are set up to support non-profits.

Educational products - If your non-profit society or organization promotes education or is involved in awareness programs, your website could sell or disperse educational information such as books, CDs or DVDs online. Make sure you get your message out while at the same time you also meet your revenue goals.

E-books - Sale of informatics, educational or entertaining products online is a great way to earn money while limiting distribution costs. You could sell your books, magazine, CD or DVD in electronic form. Scores of people out there are selling all kinds of e-books online these days. The great advantage here is this - once you create an electronic adaptation of your product, the marginal cost of each additional sale is zilch, zero. You could easily see a thousand copies of your product for a small percentage of production cost. The transaction difference between selling out your mission and earning revenue from it is very great. Distributing your product in e-form is a very economical way of selling while making reasonable amount of profit from it.

Affiliate products - Affiliation is the mostly sought after ways of making money online. With product affiliation, you need not deal with production costs, credit card processing, etc. You could check up The Amazon Associates Program, Commission Junction, etc. to join them as affiliates. You could generate revenue from Amazon books or any other affiliate products you mention on your site.

There are some points to consider before you set up your virtual stores: Find out if your visitors shop online, know what kind of products your visitors might want, cost of a set up, etc. Be prepared to make some investment to make your online store look attractive and easy for your visitors to shop online.

If you have a good traffic to your website, your visitors and online community members could become your customers. They might be willing to spend a few dollars for a cause that supports their values.

3 Reasons Why Your Non-Profit's Website Should Be A Blog

Everyone doing business with the public today should have a website, and that goes double for non-profits. Like commercial businesses, non-profit organizations rely on public interest and their ability to meet the public's needs in order to survive.

If you're creating a web presence for your organization, or revamping an existing one, consider using a blogging platform as the foundation for your site. A blog platform is essentially a user-friendly content management system that allows you to create anything a regular static site has, but is far simpler, easier and cheaper than just about any other system.

Here are a few more reasons you should be thinking "blog" when considering your web options:

Blogs Are Sticky

One of the primary metrics of effectiveness of a website is what is referred to as "stickiness" - a sticky site is one that attracts constant traffic and holds onto that traffic once it arrives. Good design and intuitive navigation are helpful, but real stickiness requires compelling, targeted content.

Marketing studies show that it often takes 5-7 exposures to any marketing message before someone says yes and buys your product or service - and fundraising, event announcements and requests for volunteers are just as much marketing messages as commercial sales copy is. But if all you have to offer is a static site with infrequently updated information, what incentive does your wandering visitor have to come back to be exposed to your message enough times to get them to act?

None, that's what.

However, by its very nature, a well-maintained blog continually updated with valuable content invites people to return regularly to keep up to date. It engenders a sense of community between the host and the extended readership while creating the sort of emotional buy-in that increases responses to any calls-to-action that may arise. And features like RSS subscription and email notification let your readers know when new information is available without leaving their desktops, motivating them return to read more.

Search Engines Love Content - Especially When It Changes

Since blogs contain far more, and more frequently updated, content than static sites, and are therefore more frequently scanned by search engines, having a content-rich and frequently updated blog translates into far better search engine ratings and greater site visibility than a static site. And a blog's ease of editing allows for keyword changes to be implemented at a moment's notice across the entire site, further boosting the chance of your site coming up in a relevant search.

Another advantage blogs have over static sites is that not only can you link to other related sites of interest, but other sites are much more likely to link to you, assuming you provide valuable and interesting content for them to link to. Link-backs from well-placed, relevant sites are search engine gold. Simply put, the more interesting your blog is, the more it will be linked to and the more it is linked to, the better your chances of making it to the top of a search results page.

It's So Simple, Your Child Could Do It (And Probably Already Is)

In the realm of non-profit organizations, few except the most successful can afford a full-time IT specialist with the sort of training it takes to design, build and maintain a regular static site. With its familiar input interface and ease of use, a blog is the ideal web platform when creation and ongoing maintenance of the site will likely be attended to by a string of motivated, but untrained, volunteers or staff members.

With a blog-based site, much of the work is done for you by the platform itself. If need be, the initial set-up and design can be done by a professional, but many platforms are so easy to set up that even the terminally clueless can do it. And even if you do opt for a professional set-up, once that infrastructure is in place, updating the site couldn't be easier and is well within the abilities of a basic computer user. More advanced tasks may require more specialized skills. But even these are easier to do on a blog than on a standard static site, and help is often available on the web.

As you can see, a blog platform is a great way to attract visitors to your site, engage them at an emotional level and keep them coming back for more. And to top it all off, blog platforms are easy to use and very cheap, sometimes even free - and that's always good news to who'd rather be spending their time and money doing good than running the shop.

Website For Non-Profits - Features That Yours Should Include

There are not many differences between traditional websites and a website for non profits. The biggest difference is probably in the URL. A non profit ends with .org and a traditional one ends with .com. It is important for non profit websites to include features that are going to allow visitors to make donations of goods or services. Non profit websites usually need to have a few extra features for these types of specific needs. There are a few ideas below of features you might want to consider adding to your non profit website.

When designing a website for non profits there are a few features that can be added to enhance the overall success of your site. Having a link on each page of your site where visitors could make a donation is a great feature to add to your site. Adding a donation tracker can help you account for donations when you have an event or fundraiser and because non profit sites are so dependent on donations it is great to keep track. Running a website for non profits is similar to running a traditional website.

Your non profit organization can have an awesome website that is clear and to the point about what you do and what your goal is with help from an experienced website design company. Having a list of current and upcoming projects or events that is kept updated is a great feature for your website so that you can get the volunteers or donations you might need before your event. It is important to have great communication with volunteers and staff members about events because communication is a big key in running a website for non profits.

When designing a website for non profits, these are a few of the things to consider. Your site can be headed in the direction you want with so many different features you can add to your site. Finding a company to help you design your site is a good idea and in most cases, the design company will offer a discounted rate to a non profit website because they understand that they are very dependent on donations. Don't hesitate to seek help with your site design; plenty of companies would be willing to help your website become established in exchange for promoting their own website.

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