Credibility is one of the most critical factors that will affect your online business success. Being credible is simply the perception of being trustworthy and believable. Why do people buy brand name goods and services on the Internet and in the off-line world? One of the key reasons is that the brand represents a level of quality that they know and trust.

So how can you build credibility on the Internet for your business? A key factor is being consistent. People are more likely to trust a business or person who acts in a similar manner most of the time. For example, if your publish a newsletter to your customers or potential clients, aim for similar quality in each issue. Also, be consistent in your style of writing. Publish on a regular basis - irregular publication schedules cause confusion in the minds of your readers.

Consistency applies to every aspect of your business. Don't change your guarantee terms every couple of weeks. Ensure that all your products or services consistently meet the quality and value standards that you are promoting.

Credibility is something that is earned. Therefore, you need to give of yourself to get trust back in return. There are many ways to do this. Some software businesses offer free trial periods so the customer can try before they buy. Others offer a "shareware" version for people to try. This process enables the potential customer to check that your product will do the job you say that it will.

Sharing your knowledge is a useful way to build your credibility. This can be done through monitoring discussion lists and boards that your potential customers frequent. Answer questions that they pose. Be a regular contributor to the list so that people come to know and respect your knowledge.

Making outlandish claims in advertisements or on your Web site can harm your credibility. Telling the truth is always the best way. Ensure that your products or services provide more value than promised. Take the time to walk in your customers' shoes before writing your ad copy or your web site promotional material. This will enable you to clearly state benefits that your potential customers are looking for in a way that they will find believable.

Read More...

1. Start with your entry page. Be sure to include a huge graphical logo, but absolutely no useful information. In general, large unnecessary downloads such as background music (ideally totally inappropriate music), multimedia presentations and video files, are an essential element of the truly annoying site, so include six or seven on every page.
2. Very tiny text (SIZE=1) can be a great way to damage your visitors' eyesight. Unfortunately modern browsers include a font-sizing feature which negates much of the power of this technique. Webmasters can seize back control by mixing tiny (SIZE=1) and very large (SIZE=6) text on the same page.
3. Low contrast color combinations like yellow on white, or better yet, dark gray on black, have been proven to increase web surfers' aggression levels.
4. WRITING EVERYTHING IN CAPITAL LETTERS CAN HAVE INTERESTING EFFECTS IN YOUR VISITORS' PSYCHOLOGICAL MAKE-UP. EXPERIMENT WITH switching between CASES FOR absolutely NO REASON, preferably EVEN IN THE midDLE of WOrds, TO REALLY WIND THEM UP!
5. Make sure absolutely every page positively requires horizontal scrolling.
6. Frames can be a powerful technology for making people's blood boil. Be sure to use them heavily, and don't let users easily break out even when leaving your site. For extra credit, combine this with horizontal scrolling and have the 'Home' button "accidentally" put the entire frame-set inside the smallest frame.
7. Forms are most interesting when they don't work at all. Unfortunately, it won't waste much of your visitors' time if the form has only a couple of fields. Therefore make sure your form has at least 20 fields which must be filled out exactly right (add validation code), and wait till they've struggled through them all, before giving a CGI error.
8. Banners adverts are one of the most under-used technologies on the web. Some sites have only 2 or 3 per page. Show those sites how to do it right, by having at least 20 banners per page. Remember never use a text link when you have a chance to use a banner!
9. Sadly some hosts do not add pop-ups to your pages. If your web host is holding you back in this way, don't despair. After you've mailed your letter of compliant to the hosting company, add a little JavaScript to your pages to achieve the same effect.
10. Finally the old ideas are often still the best ones: Bad English is well-known technique that many webmasters are familiar with. Be sure to include a more than adequate number of speling misteaks in all your text, or for a really exciting twist make your sentences really long, with way too many clauses, a superabundance of overlong and unnecessarily obtuse terminology and gratuitous jargon, and unexpected changes from formal language into the a more colloquial style: as it this way cool example!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Exclamation marks are also good, the more the better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

It has come to my attention that there are a few webmasters who actually want people to enjoy their site, bookmark it, and maybe even come back more than once. If you are a member of this particular minority group, you can of course do the exact opposite of these suggestions.

Read More...

What are they looking for?

When you want to find something on the web, chances are good that you start by typing in a keyword or phrase into a search engine. When someone goes looking for products, services, or content like your site's, you want them to see your site at the top of the search results. The way to achieve this is by strategically positioning your site to maximize your search engine ranking on the most important keywords and phrases. But how to decide which keywords matter most to your site?

Tried and True Methods

There are several ways to find your strategic keywords, but there are a few obvious sources. First of all, think of what words you would use to search for your site's content. The next obvious place to look is in the "keywords" META tags and page titles of other web sites. Finally, look at newsgroups, mailing lists, and discussion groups on similar subjects to make sure you haven't missed any keywords. Simply browsing the subject lines of a few days worth of newsgroup postings will probably give you all the keywords you need.

Now, there's a Better Way...

So, you've got a list of keywords written down. Now it's time to find out which ones really matter to web surfers. We'll accomplish this by taking advantage of a "pay per click" search engine and a "pay for placement" site. For each keyword or phrase on your list, try it out to see how popular that search is.

After finding out how popular each keyword or phrase on your list really is, you can focus your search engine positioning efforts in the right place. Nearly every web site operator in your field of interest is trying to maximize their ranking on the most popular keywords. You may not be able to reach anywhere near the top of the list for your most prized keywords. Now that you know how popular each one is, though, you can work your way down the list until you start to hit pay dirt.

Always try to rank well on the most popular terms, but don't forget that sometimes the best gold is a little farther down the mine shaft. We've gotten quite a few hits from the term "Web site promotion toolkit," but it may take us months to see a top 20 position for "Web site promotion." While we tweak our doorway pages for the most popular search terms in our field, we're still getting traffic from several search engines. And that's the way this game is played.

Read More...

Due to the success of the Google search engine, other major search engines have decided to change the method used to rank Web pages. Unlike other search engines, which rely mainly on keywords or meta-search technology to find the most relevant Web pages, Google offers an advanced technology called PageRank to deliver the most relevant results.

Due to the success of Google, major search engines have decided to adopt a similar ranking system to Google's. The new ranking system will measure and rank the number of links that are directed towards a particular Web site. Not only is the number of links important, but the quality of the links also very important. Therefore, a link from a popular site such as Yahoo is going to give your site a higher rating.

You'll notice the first three links are from Yahoo. It would be logical to conclude that out of all the pages linking to eboz.com, Yahoo's links are given the highest rating.

To search for Web pages linking to your site, simply search for: "links: yourdomain.com".

Get Your Site Linked

Ok, we've established that you need other Web sites to link to your site to improve its chances of receiving a high ranking. So, where do you find these link partners?

Well, since you can find out who links to your site, it's just as easy to find out who's linking to your competitors' Web sites. Simply use the same search formula, but replace your domain with that of a competitor.

It would seem logical to conclude that sites who would link to your competitors would more than likely be willing to link to yours as well. Now you can steal some of the traffic your competitors have been getting from these sites! The great thing about this technique is that sites that link to you are likely to stay linked to you for a long time. Some links will be removed as Web pages change. You simply replace those lost links by finding new sites.

So how do you go about getting a site to link to yours? Simple. Just ask! You may be surprised to find how receptive webmasters are to these proposals.

It might seem like a lot of work to personalize every single email, but it will greatly enhance your chances of success. That extra touch of personalization can be the difference between the recipient reading your email or sending it to the trash bin in 2 seconds. In your email, clearly explain exactly how you believe a link to your site would benefit their visitors.

When you contact the webmaster of the site, make your email appear as personal as possible. Address each by his or her name. Usually you can find it in their Web site somewhere. Also add your direct contact information to your email; full name, company, address, and phone number.

Make it easy for them to link to you. Offer a variety of links; banners, buttons, and text links. Email them the HTML link code, so all they have to do is copy and paste the code into their pages. This will dramatically increase the odds of them agreeing to add your link.

Some webmasters will want something in return. In that case you can either offer a link back to their site, or offer them a payback in terms of a commission for each visitor they refer. You can buy software that will keep track of these links.

By persuading other Web sites to link to yours, your search engine rankings will improve greatly. In addition they will be sharing some of their traffic with you. Another bonus is that as their sites grow, your site will grow with them -- without any extra effort on your part!

Read More...

At its most basic Affiliate Marketing is simply the establishment of a relationship between two or more website owners for their mutual financial benefit.


The majority of websites are established to promote products or a service of some kind, yet they are little use if no-one knows about their existence. A website operator may decide to leave the generation of visitor traffic to his site to the various search engines. However, most search engines work by simply taking account of the number of other sites linking to yours as a measure of your popularity. Affiliate Marketing is a way to take advantage of this fact to generate revenue, not only for you through your own site, but also for those sites that point visitors in your direction.

For most of the 20th Century, the traditional sales and marketing model was predicated on spreading your message as far and wide as possible. Traditionally, this was done through media advertising, direct marketing to potential customers and the use of sales teams, both direct and indirect. In many ways, Affiliate Marketing takes this model and applies it to the Internet - with one crucial difference. In traditional marketing, the message is spread hoping that it will reach prospective customers - an outward-bound style of marketing; with Affiliate Marketing, the potential customers are drawn towards the product information - an inward-bound marketing model that is far more effective.

In the early days of the World Wide Web, the message was spread through mutual link exchanges. A simple mechanism where one website would exchange a link with another on the basis of “I’ll tell my visitors about your website, if you tell yours about mine.” However this was little more than a “hand-shake” type arrangement with no incentive for links to be promoted and no financial benefits attached.

Affiliate Marketing takes that concept and expands it.

Assume that you are a store selling a popular commodity item such as books. While you want people to come to your bookstore, it would also be a good revenue generator if people purchased books through your website, saving you overhead and enabling you to order books from the distributors as they are purchased, cutting inventory and reducing risk. So how do you get people to come to your website to buy the books they are interested in?

Offer to pay anyone who sends a visitor from their website to yours a small percentage of any resulting sales.

The owners of that website now have both a benefit from the link and an incentive to promote your store. You can almost guarantee that your link will go from being buried on the “Links” page to being on the front page of their site. They will also spread the word among people of the same interests, and before long you have more people supplying revenue generating links to your site. The link exchange has now become “Look at this cool site and these cool products – Go visit it.”

Now you have an Affiliate Marketing program in place.

So one simple definition of an affiliate marketing program is that a producer (X) establishes a relationship with another website owner or publisher (Y) wherein he provides a financial benefit for Y to direct visitors to X’s website.

Of course, the more associate publishers that content producer signs up, the broader his reach and the more revenue will be generated.

Learn from Affiliate Junktion

Affiliate Junktion, a global leader in providing internet marketing and affiliate marketing services, is now recruiting new affiliates to join the Affiliate Junktion Program. It is completely FREE to join, with 1-on-1 personal support from your very own dedicated Affiliate Manager.

When you join the Affiliate Junktion Program you can expect quality results, superior personal support and a steady, ongoing income online through their performance-based program.



They set a high industry standard for program quality and provide the most sophisticated tools available. Affiliate Junktion operates the only truly global affiliate marketing network where you are guaranteed to earn.

Read More...

Almost everyone enjoyed art class, but let's be honest--there was probably only one kid in each classroom with actual talent. Such is the case with true Web design. So you may not be a brilliant artist, but you can probably create a credible Web site design that serves the purpose of attracting attention. If your graphic art talent is limited to stick figures and cartoon landscapes, well then, this article may be for you.

Know Your Limitations

Honestly judge your own abilities. You know the level of artistic talent you possess, so operate within your limits. If you can't draw two straight lines, stick to computer-generated graphics. If you don't know the difference between a pixel and a palette, perhaps you're better off with text effects. If art is important to your Web site's business, don't be afraid to consider hiring a professional.

Know Your Tools

If you expect to create professional-caliber graphics with Adobe Photoshop the first time you boot up the software, then you're in for a surprise. Chances are you'll either create a big mess or get frustrated pretty quickly. If you've never used any kind of graphics-editor before, give yourself time to learn. Find software that has a number of creative built-in special effects and makes your first-time images look better than average.

Familiarize yourself with dingbats--these are little pieces of icon art that a talented illustrator has developed and turned into a font. There are thousands of them available for download on the Internet for free or a small fee. Each letter corresponds with a graphic; for instance, type the letter A, and you'll have a beautiful coat of arms. Dingbats come in all shapes and sizes and can look like buttons, arrows or caricatures.

If you aren't a whiz at HTML, consider a WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) layout editor like FrontPage or WebSite Creator by CM4all. This type of site-editor makes it easy to envision your final Web pages--the changes you make in your template will be reflected nearly identically on your Web site.

If you do know a little something about programming and Web page design, consider building your site with external, included files. One of the most important rules of good Web design is a consistent look and feel, starting with the navigation. The navigation should look and operate the same on every page. If you construct your navigation within an external file that is included at page load, you can save yourself tons of repetitive efforts.

If you want to add a new section, instead changing the navigation on hundreds of pages, you merely change the included file and you've added more functionality. There are probably other pieces of your site that will appear on every page. If so, put them in external files--you'll be glad you did.

Plan Ahead

This step is essential from the most gifted professional to the earliest beginner. Even if you can't draw or program, you can visualize. Spend a lot of pre-computer time conjuring images in your head. Try to transform those images to paper so you'll remember what you had in mind.

Use Photographs

For the no-talent artist, photography becomes the ultimate substitute for computer-generated art. Buy a digital camera or a scanner. If you need a graphic that looks like a pumpkin patch, take a picture of one. Want to create that perfect background scene to set the mood? There's no better realization than the actual thing. Props in photography can serve an equally compelling purpose as that omni-filtered vector you spent days developing. If you don't have the money or inclination to do digital photography, there are plenty of stock catalogs available for a reasonable fee.

In summary, why make it harder on yourself than it needs to be? If you get intimidated by the marvelous professional artists out there, you'll never give yourself a chance. Some of the most enjoyable sites on the Web are created by people who wouldn't be able to dAZzle anyone with their artistic skills--but understand how to use the tools and techniques that are available to every Web designer.

Read More...

In some ways, this tip might be the most important. Every Web site should fall under one of the following categories:

• Informational: Serve as a resource for information about a trade, product or cause.
• Service-oriented: Offer a service, sell a product or advertise a company.
• Personal/entertainment: Keep visitors engaged via your articles, stories, blog or multimedia.

If your site doesn't fall into one of these three categories, you may want spend more time brainstorming and planning your site. Try to come up with a mission statement to keep your goal in focus. If you're going to publish a Web site, do it because you feel you have something of value to offer to your audience.

Read More...

Your Web site is simply part of your business, and it should reflect the way you do business. While thousands of words have been written outlining the rules of Web design, perhaps the most important one is for you to be yourself online.

If you tend to be conservative in the way you conduct your business, don't publish a Web site with loud colors and an informal tone simply because some tutorial said that's the way it should be. The tone will end up feeling awkward and forced. A Web site that engages, informs and entertains will benefit your business, but remember--you can accomplish those goals the same way you're comfortable doing them offline.

Bottom line--you don't need to change anything about your business' identity because you're putting it online.

Read More...

A common misconception about Web development and Web marketing is that customer service is not a requirement. But putting your business online means that you're creating another channel of contact with your customers--they're going to expect replies to their e-mails.

Listen to your visitors for the same reason you would seek external advice on personal issues, or edits to your writing. It's hard to be objective about something you've created.

It's a good idea to insert an e-mail contact link somewhere highly visible on the homepage. Encourage users to leave a comment about the site. Sure, you'll get more e-mail than usual, but this is direct feedback from your customers. Use it constructively to improve your Web site's ease of use and clarity. Plus, you might even receive a positive comment every now and then.

Read More...

Have you ever run across a site that hasn't been updated in the past year or more? Did that company or organization seem more or less professional to you?

Update your site. Make sure all your content is fresh. You may think that you have a wealth of material and that it could take the average visitor months to finish it, but not everybody will be interested to read it all. If someone visits your site, finds a good article and enjoys it, they will likely come back at some point to read more. But if nothing changes, your visitor isn't likely to come back again.

Once you stop staying on top of your site, so will your visitors. Sometimes there simply isn't time to make updates as often as you would like. Maybe set an update goal for yourself when you're planning, and stick to it. If you're launching a blog, there will be an expectation of regular updates, so you'll want to set reminders to ensure those updates happen. But if you're launching a simple online presence for your uncle's sleepy accounting practice, then you could probably go months without an update.

An honest understanding of a particular Web site's needs at the outset will help keep it from going stale too quickly.

Read More...